The Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament (ENDC) was sponsored by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

in 1961. The ENDC considered

disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing Weapon, weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, ...

, confidence-building measures and nuclear test controls.Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament
,

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, UM Digital Library Production Service, updated February 17, 2006, accessed June 7, 2010. Between 1965 and 1968, the ENDC negotiated the

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperatio ...

History

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly accepted the decision of the major powers to create the ENDC through resolution 1722 (XVI) on December 21, 1961. The ENDC began work on March 14, 1962, in

Geneva, Switzerland Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Ca ...

and met regularly until August 26, 1969. Singh, Nagendra and McWhinney, Edward. ''Nuclear Weapons and Contemporary International Law'',
Google Books link
, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1989, p. 231, (). On that date the ENDC was reconstituted as the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD). The August 26 meeting of the ENDC was its 431st since its inception.LeGault, Albert and Fortman, Michel. ''A Diplomacy of Hope: Canada and Disarmament, 1945-1988'',
Google Books link
, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1992, p. 197-98, (). Soon after the ENDC began work the Soviet Union submitted a draft treaty for consideration. The USSR Draft Treaty on General and Complete Disarmament under Strict International Control was submitted to the ENDC on March 15, 1962. The Soviet draft treaty was an 18-point plan for disarmament in three stages which included

nuclear disarmament Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term ''denuclearization'' is also used to describe the pro ...

and the creation of a UN special disarmament organization. Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan and Mango, Anthony. ''Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: A to F'',
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, Taylor & Francis, 2003 p. 543,(). The United States quickly countered with its own proposals on April 18, 1962.

Members

The ENDC included the original members of the Ten Nation Committee on Disarmament (TNCD) as well as eight additional member nations. The ENDC actually only included the participation of seventeen nations, as France did not participate in an official capacity. However, they were involved in an unofficial role in consultations with the other Western representatives. The original members of TNCD were: (

Western Bloc The Western Bloc, also known as the Capitalist Bloc, the Freedom Bloc, the Free Bloc, and the American Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War (1947–1991). While ...

) –

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France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. (

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...

) –

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

.Legault, p. 170. The nations added to ENDC were:

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 to 1971. It was initially a short-lived political union between Republic of Egypt (1953–1958), Egypt (including Occupation of the Gaza Strip by the United Ara ...

(UAR).

Results and legacy

The ENDC (1962–1969) was one of several predecessors to the current UN disarmament organization, the

Conference on Disarmament The Conference on Disarmament (CD) is a multilateral disarmament forum established by the international community to negotiate arms control and disarmament agreements based at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The Conference meets annually in ...

(CD).Disarmament
, The United Nations Office at Geneva, United Nations, 2009, accessed June 7, 2010. The ENDC followed the short-lived Ten Nation Committee on Disarmament (1960), and was succeeded by the CCD (1969–1978) until the CD was formed in 1979. After the events of the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

in 1962 leaders in both

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, and

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found that communicating with each other was plagued with certain delay. In the aftermath of the crisis the ENDC presented a working paper titled "Measures to Reduce the Risk of War Through Accident, Miscalculation, or Failure of Communication". In the paper, the United States proposed a direct link of communication between Washington and Moscow. Though the Soviets had previously rejected such a link outside the framework of a larger disarmament agreement in April 1963 both sides announced a willingness to commit to such an agreement. The agreement, usually known as the " Hot Line Agreement" was signed and entered into force on June 20, 1963. Blacker, Coit D., Duffy, Gloria, Stanford Arms Control Group. ''International Arms Control: Issues and Agreements'',
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, Stanford University Press, 1984, pp. 117-18, (). Although the ENDC ratified the Hot Line Agreement the negotiations that actually led to its implementation occurred outside the confines of the committee.

References

{{authority control Arms control Diplomacy Cold War United Nations organizations based in Geneva Soviet Union–United States relations