Forward Thinking attend a briefing on 'Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Towards a WMD Free Zone in the Middle East', Chatham House, May 2012

At this briefing, Dr Patricia Lewis, Research Director of International Security at Chatham House, discussed the developments announced at the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference held in Vienna earlier this month and assessed the likelihood for success.Also discussed at the briefing were the independent state perspectives towards such steps in pursuing nuclear non-proliferation, in particular concerning Israel and Iran. Similarly, the role of Egypt in this regional process, in light of drastic political and social change in the country, was also raised. The will of the people, who may now have the opportunity to hold their politicians to account, is to be an important (and somewhat unknown) factor in determining the level of Egypt's urgency in pursuing a WMD free zone, it was said. In addition, the difficulty, complexity and sensitivity of carrying out inspections and adhering to a program of disbanding nuclear weapons technology (when substantial resource, equipment and knowledge bases have already been built) was a further topic of discussion.Furthermore, the role and likely future importance of nuclear energy in the region was raised in the briefing, as were concerns regarding the fate and use of WMDs in countries suffering from severe instability.