Background Information

The 2005 Carnegie International Non-Proliferation Conference took place on Monday and Tuesday, November 7 and 8, 2005 at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. The chair of the conference was Carnegie Director for Non-Proliferation Joseph Cirincione.

This was the latest in a series of nonproliferation conferences run by the Carnegie Endowment, a non-profit, nonpartisan foreign policy research organization located in Washington, D.C.

Widely considered to be the premier event in its field, the 2005 conference attracted over 800 policymakers, experts, academics, journalists and students from around the world. It presented a unique occasion to exchange ideas on urgent nonproliferation challenges and to hear from some of the world’s most thoughtful and informed analysts. Over the course of two full days, conference participants had the opportunity to listen to 70 speakers hailing from 12 countries and 4 continents.

This year’s conference theme was "Sixty Years Later," a look back at the six decades of the nuclear age and a look forward to solutions to today's proliferation problems. November 2005 marked the 60th anniversary of the world’s first nonproliferation proposal—the joint declaration submitted to the United Nations by U.S. President Harry S Truman, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Canadian Prime Minister William Mackenzie King.

Carnegie Director for Nonproliferation Joseph Cirincione launched the conference with a multimedia presentation on "A Brief History of the Atomic Age,” based on his article, "Lessons Lost," in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The conference also featured a plenary panel discussion with nuclear historians Robert S. Norris, Richard Rhodes, and Jonathan Schell, chaired by Carla Anne Robbins of the Wall Street Journal.

Highlights included keynote and plenary addresses from:
• IAEA Director-General and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei
• Carnegie President Jessica T. Mathews
• U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman
• Egyptian Ambassador to the United States Nabil Fahmy
• U.S. Under Secretary of State Robert Joseph
• Former Secretary of Defense William Perry
• Director of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Alexander Rumyantsev
• Director of the National Nuclear Security Administration Linton Brooks
• Senator Richard Lugar
• Former Senator Sam Nunn
• General Eugene Habiger, University of Georgia

In breakout panels experts grappled with issues including the Iranian stalemate, the challenge of negotiating with North Korea, how to prevent catastrophic terrorism, the implications of the nuclear deal with India, the history of the nuclear age, prospects for outer space security, and the imperative of reforming the nuclear fuel supply.

Video of keynote speeches are now available on our website. Audio and transcripts of the panels are currently being uploaded.

To access resources from the 2004 Carnegie International Non-Proliferation Conference, click here.