The purpose of the project is to establish the nature of the environment in which the United Nations is operating on these issues; the ways in which it has and might respond to them; and the questions and difficulties that arise for the world organization as a result of those factors.

Building on earlier collaboration on Security Council reform and priorities for the eighth secretary-general, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the institute are collaborating with ACUNS, UN University, and Canada's Royal Military College and will produce the following volume.

Jane Boulden, Ramesh Thakur and Thomas G. Weiss ed., The United Nations and Nuclear Orders (New York: United Nations University Press, forthcoming 2009).

The starting assumptions for this investigation are:
• There is an increased desire on the part of key actors and of member states generally that the UN, and in particular, the UN Security Council, play a role in dealing with nuclear issues.
• There are Charter grounds for such a role as well as some past experience, including concrete experience in Iraq, to build on.
• The current political, legal, normative and military context, however, is considerably different from that in which many of the previous UN goals were established and experience occurred. Indeed, many precepts once taken as givens are now openly questioned.
• Many of the questions relating to how, when and in what context the United Nations is playing or might play a role have not been fully considered.

Also available: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Occasional Paper, "Can the NPT Regime be fixed or should it be abandoned?" by Ramesh Thakur, Jane Boulden, and Thomas G. Weiss.