Call for Papers: India-United States Nuclear Cooperation Agreement

The University of Reading, in association with Ambedkar Law College, Chennai, is organising three workshops to examine various issues arising from the 2007 India-United States Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (123 Agreement). The first of these workshops, for which there is now a call for papers, will be held on September 14, 2009, in Reading. Here's the call:

The 123 Agreement was signed by the United States and India in 2007 to operationalise the Joint Statement by United States President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 whereby India agreed to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and place the former under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. The purpose of the 123 Agreement is to facilitate the exchange of civil nuclear technology between India and the United States. The Agreement is exceptional in that it goes against the grain of several decades of United States non-proliferation practice and implicitly recognises India’s status as a nuclear weapons state. Despite claims that the Agreement benefits India by ending its nuclear isolation and contributing to its burgeoning energy needs, there has been stinted opposition to the Agreement; the Singh government narrowly survived a no-confidence motion brought by opposition parties in 2008 over the issue.

The University of Reading, in association with Ambedkar Law College, Chennai, is organising three workshops to examine various issues arising from the Agreement. The first of these will be held in Reading on 14 September 2009 and is expected to be an overview workshop. We are interested in papers on themes including the following:

• The impact of the 123 Agreement on the existing international non-proliferation regime;
• The consequences of the 123 Agreement for India’s strategic objectives and traditional distance from United States influence in international relations;
• The implications of the 123 Agreement for other nuclear states, such as Pakistan, and for allegedly nuclear-aspirant states, such as Iran and North Korea;
• The role of the IAEA and its safeguards system under the 123 Agreement;
• The role of other international organisations on nuclear energy cooperation

Please submit an abstract (max. 1,000 words), together with a CV, to Dr. Robert P. Barnidge, Jr., at r.barnidge@rdg.ac.uk by 20 March 2009. Successful applicants will be informed by the end of March 2009. A first draft of the final papers will be required by 7 September 2009. Please contact Dr. Barnidge at r.barnidge@rdg.ac.uk with any queries.