The Neutralist World and Disarmament Negotiations

Abstract

The involvement of eight nonaligned nations in the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee (ENDC) is the culmination of a growing neutralist influence in the United Na tions and a strong desire among the nonaligned nations to curb the arms race. Three years of negotiations in the Disarma ment Committee affords an opportunity to analyze the role of the neutralists on the Committee and their effect on the out come of the talks. The major neutralist efforts involved at tempting by various diplomatic techniques to pressure the nu clear powers into reconciling their differences. Although each of the eight reacted differently to various elements in United States-United Kingdom and Soviet Union proposals, they all avoided outward partisanship toward either East or West. A neutralist compromise proposal of April 1962, suggesting a sys tem of "inspection by invitation," failed to bridge the Soviet and American differences on the problem of inspection. While the neutralist presence at Geneva reduced the degree of po lemics in the talks and forced the nuclear powers—particularly the Soviets—to use more reasonable arguments, they did not substantially affect the outcome of the Committee's work. Both the "hot line" agreement and the partial-test-ban treaty in 1963 were negotiated by the nuclear powers on their own and without an audience.