The International Nuclear Arms Control Regime Revisited

The UI Podcast

The current nuclear arms control architecture, an essential pillar of the international security order, has come under increasing pressure. Could we be headed towards a return to the unrestrained nuclear competition of the Cold War? The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty which has served to eliminate an entire category of nuclear weapons, was terminated on 2 August this year. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START,) unless extended, will expire in 2021, and the limited progress on nuclear disarmament by the nuclear weapons states has put the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in question. Can the existing international nuclear architecture be upheld? Will the major powers, who have previously led the development of arms control initiatives, be able to resume constructive cooperation, or does the future of the arms control regime lie elsewhere? Keynote: A New Phase for Arms Control Rose Gottemoeller, Deputy Secretary General of NATO. Gottemoeller has previously served as Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the U.S. Department of State, and Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Commentators: Ian Anthony, Director of SIPRI’s European Security Programme Gudrun Persson, Associate Professor, Russia and Eurasia Studies Programme (RUFS) at the Swedish Defence Research Agency The seminar was moderated by Christer Ahlström, Director of UI.