Foreword

As is customary, this latest edition of the United Nations Disarmament Yearbook objectively charts and records not only arms control successes, but also failures and disappointments. For a number of years the latter category has been much in evidence. Indeed, despite continuing efforts, 2004 revealed no signs of a breakthrough in the continuing impasse that has prevented any chance of substantive progress in important United Nations fora — most notably, the Conference on Disarmament and the Disarmament Commission. By virtue of its very detailed nature, however, the Yearbook also bears eloquent testimony to the impressive level of effort and energy that the international community devotes to the task of disarmament and arms control. The commitment by Member States to that task does not waver and it is perhaps in the small, daily incremental steps that we need to see the true effectiveness of the global efforts in disarmament. The perhaps fragile seeds of future progress are therefore surely contained within these pages. It is our duty to identify and nurture them.

Related Subject(s): Disarmament