Issued annually since 1946/47, the Yearbook is the principal reference work of the United Nations, providing a comprehensive, one-volume account of the Organization's work. It includes details of United Nations activities concerning trade, industrial development, natural resources, food, science & technology, social development, population, environment, human settlements, children & legal questions, along with information on the work of each specialized agency in the United Nations family. The Yearbook is an indispensable guide to the UN.

The evolution of the disarmament regime of the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) is described from 1980, when the first BTWC Review Conference was held, until 1998. The author analyses the results of SIPRI's first four review Conferences.

The book is a study of the rules of procedure of international conferences. It examines the legal basis of these rules of procedure and the history of their development since the end of the Second World War. The central part of the work consists of an examination of the practical application of rules of procedure at international conferences. The book also compares the application of rules at conferences with the relevant practice of the UN General Assembly, and the assemblies of international organisations such as the WHO and ILO. The book examines whether certain procedural rules and applications have become so well established that they have by now attained the status of customary international law.

The Secretary-General announced on 24 May 2018 his Agenda for Disarmament, which outlines a set of practical measures across the entire range of disarmament issues, including weapons of mass destruction, conventional arms and future weapon technologies. It seeks to generate fresh perspectives and to explore areas where serious dialogue is required to bring disarmament back to the heart of our common efforts for peace and security.