Nuclear Armaments

History of the Resolution

This resolution, the first in a pair of International Security resolutions designed to promote international security by giving nations more discretion in the options they use to defend themselves, represented a change from the string of previous International Security resolutions, which focused on disaster prevention and response. Flibbleites took an early draft of the Nuclear Armaments resolution to the newly formed National Sovereignty Organization.

Flibbleites observed that the United Nations has not been able to come to a consensus on the subject of nuclear arms over the past several years, and designed the text of this resolution to be a compromise between the nations that have argued for UN nuclear disarmament and those nations that have advocated that nuclear weapons are essential to the security and defense of all UN members. The arguments that were used against the failed End Nuclear Proliferation Act and Ban Nuclear Weapons resolutions were used as the main defense of this resolution.

The Nuclear Armaments resolution passed with by a margin of approximately 1,500 votes with 55% of the votes in favour. The previous two Global Disarmament resolutions failed by approximately 2,000 vote margins with about 44% of the nations voting being in favour.

This resolution helped open the door for the next UN resolution, the United Nations Security Act, which reached quorum while Nuclear Armaments was on the UN floor.

Text of the Resolution

REALIZING that UN members are outnumbered by non members by about 3 to 1,

ACKNOWLEDGEING the fact that UN resolutions only affect UN members,

NOTICING the fact that many non member nations are hostile towards UN members,

REALIZING that the UN members need to be able to defend themselves if attacked,

NOTICING that the UN has twice defeated resolutions attempting to ban UN members from possessing nuclear weapons,

1. DECLARES that UN members are allowed to possess nuclear weapons to defend themselves from hostile nations,

2. PRESERVES the right for individual nations to decide if they want to possess nuclear weapons.

Votes For: 8,379

Votes Against: 6,835

Implemented: Mon Jul 3 2005

Gameplay Impacts

This resolution represents the first UN International Security resolution to directly advocate for the rights of individual nations to have their own say in determining (and possibly increasing) their military spending, and was seen as something of an international watershed for nations advocating for the UN to reduce its influence in national domestic policies.

Legality

The legality of this resolution was questioned by players who felt that this resolution would restrict the UN's ability to restrict the ownership or use of nuclear weapons, however the moderators quickly ruled this resolution as being legal. This ruling was important in the subsequent ruling on the United Nations Security Act, which expanded upon the idea behind this resolution to give nations the right to develop and own any weapons necessary to their national defense.

Additional Materials

• Nuclear Armaments UN Floor Debate
• Could I get a ruling on a UN Proposal? Legality Ruling
• Draft: Nuclear Armaments Draft Proposal Discussions
• United Nations Security Act
• UN Timeline
• United Nations