Arms Control: The Nuclear Challenge of our Era

Izumi Nakamitsu: Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs

Dr. Francesca Giovannini: Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom, Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs

Dr. Togzhan Kassenova: Senior Fellow, Center for Policy Research at the University at Albany, SUNY

Dr. Hassan Elbahtimy: Senior Lecturer, Department of War Studies, King's College London

Amb. Wolfgang Ischinger: President of the MSC Foundation Council, Munich Security Conference

Dr. Karim Haggag: Director, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) (Moderator)

The era of nuclear weapons reductions appears to have ended. Bilateral nuclear arms control between Russia and the United States is almost over. Revitalized national debates in Europe, the Middle East and Northeast Asia about nuclear status and strategy suggest there is some potential for more states to join the nuclear club. The signs are that a new qualitative nuclear arms race is gearing up, and compared to the last one, the risks are likely to be more diverse and more serious. Among the key points of competition will be technological capacities in cyberspace, outer space and ocean-space. Thus, the idea of who is ahead in the race will be even more elusive and intangible, and the old largely numerical formulas of arms control will no longer suffice. Against this background, how is it possible to renew momentum towards reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons, or even reviving nuclear arms control?

In partnership with: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)