Call for Papers: India-United States Nuclear Cooperation Agreement

A call for papers has been issued for an international conference on the India-United States Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, to take place in Chennai on March 23 and 24, 2010. This is the second of three workshops sponsored through a collaborative research project between the University of Reading and the Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University. (Information on the first workshop is here.) 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, UK, and the Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Chennai, have undertaken a collaborative research project funded by the British Academy’s UK-South Asia Partnership scheme to examine various issues arising from the 123 Agreement. The first of the project’s three workshops was held in Reading on 14 September 2009 and was an overview workshop. The Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University will be hosting the second workshop on 23 and 24 March 2010 in Chennai.

We are interested in papers for the Chennai workshop that touch upon the 123 Agreement and issues related to, among others, the environment and trade. Please submit an abstract (max. 1,000 words), together with a curriculum vitae, to the project coordinators, Dr. Robert P. Barnidge, Jr. (r.barnidge@reading.ac.uk) and Prof. N. Manohar (profmanohar@yahoo.com), by 4 December 2009. Applicants will be informed by mid-December, and successful applicants will have their accommodation, food, and transportation expenses covered by the project. A first draft of the final papers will be required by 8 March. Please contact Dr. Barnidge and Prof. Manohar with any queries.

The workshop will be held at the Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, a state University that offers postgraduate courses in law that lead to Master of Laws (ML) and PhD degrees. The University is situated along the coastal rim of Chennai city, the capital of the present State of Tamil Nadu and formerly known as Madras, a quiet city with a large number of educational institutions. The climate in Chennai ranges from 30-32 Celsius during March.