Tuesday 13 April 2010

Big Tent Communications is proud to announce its involvement in the launch of the European Leaders Network for multi-lateral nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

The group issued a statement on April 14, 2010, signed by 34 former prime ministers, defence chiefs and senior politicians, including James Arbuthnot, Lord Howe, John Reid, Margaret Beckett, Admiral Lord Boyce, Lord Guthrie and Baroness Williams.

An op-ed article was placed in The Guardian on April 14, 2010:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/apr/14/nuclear-proliferation-washington-summit

Further details:

EUROPEAN LEADERSHIP NETWORK FOR MULTILATERAL
NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND NONPROLIFERATION
1. Introduction:
The following recent and important international developments show that the
world is entering a crucial period in the nuclear nonproliferation
and
disarmament policy debate. These developments include:
· Growing concern, as highlighted by recent statements and opinion pieces
in national newspapers from politicians across Europe about nuclear
proliferation and disarmament. Pieces have been published in: the
Netherlands, France, Norway, Poland, Germany, Italy and the UK. 1
· Increased awareness of the importance of the upcoming 2010 NPT
Review Conference, especially in light of the failure to reach agreement at
the 2005 Review Conference;
· The activities in the US of former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and
George Shultz, former Defence Secretary William Perry and former
Senator Sam Nunn, in pursuit of the goal of a world without nuclear
weapons;
· President Obama’s speech on the same theme in Prague in April 2009;
· The recent formation in the UK of a Top Level Group (TLG) of UK
Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and NonProliferation
(which contains almost all senior ministers of defence and
foreign affairs from the last 2 decades); 2
· Limited progress in relation to the nuclear programmes of Iran and North
Korea;
Given this context, it is clear that there is a greater need than ever for a more
intense, highlevel,
intraEuropean and transatlantic debate and discussion of the
issues and for increased awareness of what is at stake among European
politicians and the public at large.
1 A full list of the high level European authors is attached to this document as Appendix A.
2 The Top Level Group consists of several former Secretaries of State for defence and foreign
affairs, two former Chiefs of the Defence Staff, one former Secretary General of NATO, and a
small group of other very senior members of the UK parliament with an active role working on
nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation
issues. A full list of members of the group is attached
to this document as Appendix B.
08 April 2010 2
2. Aims for the European Network
In responding to the above developments what is now needed is the promotion,
creation and development of a European Leadership Network of senior
parliamentarians and politicians for Multilateral Nuclear NonProliferation
and
Disarmament. It is intended that, in the context of the forthcoming review of the
NPT and beyond that point in time, the network will bring together European
political, military, and diplomatic leaders (both former and currently serving) and
will:
· Join up what are currently largely separate national debates on nuclear nonproliferation
and disarmament issues in Europe;
· Build a more coordinated highlevel
European policy community that is
capable of impacting on wider international diplomatic discussions aimed at
addressing the challenges;
· Raise the level of awareness and the quality of debate on the issues among
European parliamentarians, both at national and EU level;
· Improve European public understanding of the issues involved;
· Provide an access point, for interested journalists and other interested
stakeholders to senior European political and expert opinion;
· Provide a new avenue for experts from academia, NGOs and the think tank
community to feed analysis and views into the policymaking
process;
· Over time, improve the frequency, depth and range of opportunities for
dialogue between highlevel
policymakers
in Europe with those in the US
and other parts of the world;
· Facilitate contact between likeminded
European figures and their
counterparts in the US with a view to promoting the strategic objectives of
nuclear nonproliferation
and disarmament around the world;
· Ultimately ensure that these strategic aims and objectives become
mainstream political thinking across Europe.

3. Range of Activities
The European Leadership Network needs to engage in a wide range of activities
to create, grow, sustain and support the network, and to ensure that it is
impacting the policy debate rather than serving as a talkingshop
only. These will include:
· The organisation and hosting of a series of highlevel
seminars to bring
together senior European figures from across the continent for focused, face
to face discussions on the issues;
· The organisation and facilitation of more private highlevel
meetings where
this is the most effective way to air the issues and build mutual understanding
among those involved;
· Developing the increasing number of bilateral supportive contacts between
European countries.
· The commissioning and publication of a series of briefing notes and analytical
papers to raise awareness and understanding of the issues and to table
creative policy ideas;
· The maintenance of a European Leadership Network website to serve as a
focal point for network activities and to make many of its events, discussions
and papers available to a wider audience;
· Where appropriate, the facilitation of highly credible, private, track II
diplomatic engagements on sensitive issues, allowing the seniority but nongovernmental
status of some European Network members to be used to good
diplomatic effect.
· The UK Top Level Group (TLG) of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral
Nuclear Disarmament and Non Proliferation has formed a partnership with the
London based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) to provide secretariat
and research support to the European network and RUSI has seed funding
from the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) in the United States for this purpose.
We invite other senior figures from across Europe to join the European
Network and help to deliver its ambitious aims and objectives.

The following is the list of countries whose politicians have written in their
respective national newspapers on these issues:
Belgium
The Standaard, 19 February 2010, Toward a Nuclear Weapons Free World,”
written by:
1. Former NATO secretary general Willy Claes
2. Former Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
3. Former Prime Minister JeanLuc
Dehaene
4. Former minister of Foreign Affairs Louis Michel
Netherlands
NRC Handelsblad, 23 November, 2009 "Toward A Nuclear Weapon Free World"
written by:
1. Former Prime Minister, Ruud Lubbers
2. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Max van der Stoel
3. Former Minister of Defense, Hans van Mierlo
4. Former Minister of Justice, Frits Korthals Altes
France
Le Monde, 15 October, 2009 "For Global Nuclear Disarmament, the Only Means
to Prevent Anarchic Proliferation" written by:
1. Former Prime Minister, Alain Juppe
2. Former Prime Minister, Michel Rocard
3. Former Defence Minister, Alain Richard
4. Retired General, Bernard Norlain
Norway
Aftenposten, 4 June 2009, "A Nuclear WeaponsFree
World" written by:
1. Former Prime Minister of Norway, Odvar Nordli
2. Former Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland
3. Former Prime Minister of Norway, Kåre Willoch
4. Former Prime Minister of Norway, Kjell Magne Bondevik
5. Former Foreign Minister of Norway, Thorvald Stoltenberg
Poland
Gazeta Wyborcza, 3 April, 2009, "The Unthinkable Becomes Thinkable: Towards
the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons" written by:
1. Former President, Aleksander Kwasniewski
2. Former Prime Minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki
3. Former President, leader of the Solidarity movement & Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Lech Walesa
Germany
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and International Herald Tribune, 9 January
2009, "Toward a nuclearfree
world: a German view" written by:
1. Former Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt
2. Former President, Richard von Weizsäcker
3. Former Minister, Egon Bahr
4. Former Foreign Minister, HansDietrich
Genscher
Italy
Il Corriere della Sera, 24 July, 2008, "Towards a NuclearWeaponFree
World"
written by:
1. Theoretical physicist & former Secretary General of the Pugwash
Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Francesco Calogero,
2. Former Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Massimo D'Alema MP
3. Former Foreign Affairs Minister and currently the President of the Italian
Parliament, Gianfranco Fini MP
4. Former Minister of European Affairs, Giorgio La Malfa MP
5. Former Minister of Defense, Arturo Parisi MP
UK
The Times, 30 June, 2008, "Start worrying and learn to ditch the bomb" written
by:
1. Former Foreign Secretary, Lord Douglas Hurd
2. Former Defence Secretary, Former Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind
MP
3. Former Foreign Secretary, Lord David Owen
4. Former Defence Secretary, Former Secretary General of NATO, Lord
Robertson of Port Ellen
08 April 2010 6
Appendix B
The following 16 parliamentarians make up the UK Top Level Group:
1. The Rt Hon Michael Ancram, QC DL MP (Former Shadow Foreign Secretary
20012005,
Former Shadow Defence Secretary 2005)
2. The Rt Hon James Arbuthnot MP (Present Chair of the Defence Select
Committee in Parliament since 2005)
3. The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP (Former Foreign Secretary 200607)
4. Admiral the Lord Boyce GCB OBE DL (Former Chief of the Defence Staff
200103)
5. The Rt Hon Des Browne MP (Former Defence Secretary 200608)
(convener
of group)
6. The Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell MP, CBE QC MP (Former Leader Liberal
Democrat Party, Former Shadow Foreign Secretary 200106)
7. Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP (Former Home Secretary 200406)
8. The Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank GCB LVO OBE (Former Chief of the
Defence Staff 19972001)
9. The Rt Hon Lord Howe of Aberavon, Former British Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister 198990
10.Rt Hon the Lord Hurd of Westwell CH CBE (Former Foreign Secretary 1989 1995)
11.The Rt Hon Adam Ingram MP (Former MOD Minister of State (Armed Forces)
200107)
12.Rt Hon the Lord King of Bridgwater (Former Defence Secretary 198992)
13.The Rt Hon Dr. John Reid MP (Former Defence Secretary 200506)
14.The Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP, KCMG MP (Former Defence Secretary
1992 95,
Former Foreign Secretary 199597)
15.Rt Hon the Lord Robertson of Port Ellen KT GCMG Hon FRSE (Former
Defence Secretary 19971999,
Former Secretary General of NATO 19992003)
16.Rt Hon the Baroness Williams of Crosby (Adviser on Nuclear Proliferation to
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Director for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(from 2002))