Negotiating Verification: International Diplomacy and the Evolution of Nuclear Safeguards, 1945–1972

Nuclear safeguards have been an essential part of the global order since the beginnings of the nuclear age. The International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA], an international bureaucracy that is supposed to be a non-political, technical institution administers this global nuclear safeguards regime. Even though safeguards have always been controversial, they have turned out to be the most enduring item in the international community’s toolbox to prevent or slow down the spread of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear states. This analysis shows that nuclear safeguards, whilst they survived the fall of the Iron Curtain, were a genuine invention of the Cold War. At the beginning of the nuclear age, there was an overall understanding that safeguards were not strong enough to prevent the global spread of nuclear weapons. It was only over the course of the late 1950s and 1960s that safeguards moved from the margins to the centre of diplomatic negotiations about global nuclear order. Newly declassified records from the IAEA Archives in Vienna offer insights into the evolution of early nuclear safeguards and suggest that negotiation patterns, proceedings, and settings affected the outcome of this nuclear diplomacy.     

LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP OF A COURT-BASED INTERVENTION FOR DIVORCING PARENTS

This study investigated whether participation in an educational program for divorcing parents is associated with a lower incidence of relitigating divorce-related decisions over time. A systematic review of court records indicated that couples who attended this program (n = 159) in central Illinois were just as likely as those in the control group (n = 43) to relitigate over a 6-year period. Furthermore, county-wide rates of relitigation increased from 2 years before to 3 years after the program's introduction. However, reports obtained from participating families suggest that the program may serve an important function for families in which there is a high risk of triangulating children into postdivorce conflict.     

Umweltschutz in den Verfassungen der EU-Mitgliedstaaten Aktuelle Entwicklungen in Frankreich, Griechenland und den neuen Mitgliedstaaten

Angesichts der jüngst zu beobachtenden Dynamik im mitgliedstaatlichen Umweltverfassungsrecht enth?lt der folgende Beitrag in Anknüpfung an die Untersuchung von Thym (NuR 2000, 557 ff.) sowohl eine erforderliche Aktualisierung – insbesondere im Hinblick auf die umfassende Inkorporierung des Umweltschutzes in die franz?sische Verfassung im Jahre 2005 sowie die Erweiterung der EU im Jahre 2004 – als auch eine zukunftsorientierte Analyse des Verfassungsvergleichs mit Blick auf die Normierung des Umweltschutzes in der „Charta der Grundrechte der Europ?ischen Union (GRC)“     

No Just War: Political Reflections on Australian Churches' Condemnation of the Iraq War

This paper analyses the potentially positive role churches can play in encouraging public debate and moral reasoning on security matters. In particular, it explores Australian churches' vocal condemnation of Australia's involvement in the Iraq war through examining responses of spokespersons from the three largest Christian churches in Australia, namely Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Churches. It examines three types of reasons given for the condemnation: legal explanations of the lack of a plausible justification for war without UN sanctions; religious and moral reasons that defend peace and reconciliation; and political reasons that a war led by the “Christian West” increases global enmity and the likelihood of terrorism. I situate this analysis within just war theory. I suggest that churches can play an important social role in fostering tolerance, inter‐faith dialogue and peace.