The Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Arms: Spain and the Diplomatic Processes for their Regulation
On March 28, 2014, INCIPE and FundiPau organized an event under the heading, The Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Arms: Spain and the Diplomatic Processes for their Regulation, which focused on analyzing the consequences of nuclear arms and their impact on a global scale.
The event was presided by Vicente Garrido, the Director of INCIPE, and Jordi Armadans, the Director of FundiPau. Featured presenters included Gonzalo de Salazar, Assistant Manager of Non-proliferation and Disarmament of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Juan Blázquez, Technical Advisor of Nuclear Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and Héctor Guerra, Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean for the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Arms (ICAN).
Presently, there are 9 countries with varying nuclear capacities, totalling about 17,000 nuclear arms. The United States and Russia possess the largest amount, but the total number of nuclear weapons has decreased significantly within the past decades. In 1985, both countries accounted for 75,000 nuclear warheads, while the detonation of only a dozen would be enough to catalyze a humanitarian catastrophe and provoke a significant change in the global climate system.
During the event, the discussion ranged from the dichotomy between civilian and military use of nuclear energy, nuclear weapon free zones, the Treaty of Non-Proliferation, and the role of the Spanish Government as a member of NATO before the hypothetical ban.
Aranzazu Álvarez
Institutional Relationship Manager