The Global Security programme focuses on challenges to Europe connected with the existence of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and their delivery vehicles. It promotes the reduction of the role of nuclear weapons and strengthening of non-proliferation regimes and arms control treaties, including the JCPOA, New START, the INF, and the NPT.
Noah Mayhew, Senior Research Associate at the Vienna Centre for Peace and Disarmament, reflects on how the political debate around the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) partnership is evolving at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and offers insights on potential productive steps forward.
One year on from the death of Jina Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police, which sparked unprecedented protests across the country in support of women’s rights, Dr. Azadeh Zamirirad calls for European decision-makers to take a feminist approach to their foreign policy with Iran and in their response to Iran’s feminist uprising.
In our latest commentary from our New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) network, Michaela Higgins Sørensen explores and refutes the claim that young people are not interested in the nuclear space and calls for the sector to provide the appropriate support for young people to engage in the world of nuclear disarmament successfully.
Following the US decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, Mary Wareham and Kasia Derlicka-Rosenbauer write that countries that have endorsed their ban have a collective responsibility to end the human suffering caused by these weapons. To protect the convention’s gains and strengthen its impact, they outline three steps that state parties and supportive sates can take.
Nicholas Moulios, from the ELN’s New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) Network, has written the ELN’s first commentary as part of this project. He explores the capabilities of OSINT systems for assessing and mitigating potential nuclear disasters, and how these emerging technologies can be harnessed to improve existential risk resilience in Europe and beyond.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has exposed critical flaws in the international nuclear realm. Valeriia Hesse writes that to prevent the total erosion of the non-proliferation norm, a realistic and pragmatic approach towards gradual nuclear arms reductions must be pursued. Ahead of the NPT PrepCom, she outlines concrete steps that the international community can take to build a stronger and more resilient nuclear order.
Members of the NEVER network convened on Thursday, the 24th of August, to discuss climate change, climate change governance, and the role of great power competition in aggravating this existential risk, with NEVER coordinator, Edan Simpson, chairing the meeting.
In June NEVER members gathered for a discussion of internal logistical matters in relation to running the network.
NEVER members gathered for a roundtable discussion of AI and its role in aggravating existential risks.