The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) organized and hosted a series of events in September. Additionally, the VCDNP held its eighth intensive course on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament on 29 September — 3 October 2014.
Visit to the VCDNP
On 18 September, the VCDNP welcomed the UN Disarmament Fellows to the Center. VCDNP Executive Director Elena Sokova started the program with a brief overview of the Center and its activities and delivered a presentation on nuclear security and proliferation concerns and solutions. VCDNP Senior Fellow Dr. Nikolai Sokov presented an overview on arms control and nuclear disarmament efforts, including multilateral and bilateral treaties and developments. VCDNP Research Associate Tamara Patton followed with a lecture on new verification concepts and tools, examining satellite data, aerial observation, open source information analysis, and visualization tools.
A roundtable discussion during the IAEA General Conference
On 23 September, the VCDNP, jointly with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Women in Nuclear (WiN), and the International Network of Emerging Nuclear Specialists (INENS), organized for the second year in a row an interactive roundtable discussion about roles and opportunities for women in the nuclear field, which was held as a side event of the 2014 IAEA General Conference. The event, titled Women in All Things Nuclear—The Way Forward, attracted a large audience from national delegations, diplomatic missions, and Vienna-based international organizations. Participants included Angela Kane, the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Allison M. Macfarlane, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman, resident representatives to the IAEA from France, Philippines, the United Kingdom, as well as other eminent experts in the field of nuclear policy, diplomacy, science, and technology. The discussion offered a range of recommendations to increase the awareness of opportunities in the nuclear field, including the use of social media, mentoring young girls, greater promotion of women in organizations, and having programmes that help raise the confidence of women to pursue careers in the nuclear field. The event was featured as a "Top Story" on the IAEA website.
A panel discussion during the IAEA General Conference
On the margins of the September 2014 IAEA General Conference, the VCDNP and the World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS), with the support of the United States and the Netherlands, organized a panel on the future of the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) process. The panel featured Andrew Bieniawski, Nuclear Threat Initiative; Laura Holgate, US National Security Council; Roger Howsley, WINS; Dan Lipman, 2016 NIS Organizing Committee; and Elena Sokova, VCDNP.
The 2016 agenda will focus on implementing commitments made at the three prior summits. It will seek to identify concrete steps needed to ensure their implementation and create a roadmap for doing so. Participants agreed that the purpose of the fourth and final summit is to safeguard and strengthen the global nuclear security architecture for continued efficacy into the future. One important tool for moving this work forward is the 35-state "Joint Statement on Strengthening Nuclear Security Implementation," which sets forth important commitments—including universality of the nuclear security regime and ensuring that personnel responsible for nuclear security are demonstrably competent—and which could be presented as a gift basket at the 2016 Summit.
Event participants concluded that the Nuclear Industry Summits (for industry) and the Nuclear Knowledge Summits (for NGOs and academia) that have run concurrently with the Nuclear Security Summits have had numerous important benefits, especially the crossover effect of interactions among members of both groups. Considering that both summits' organizers have already begun drafting their work plans for 2016, the sharing of information should begin now to ensure that the final Communiqués support and integrate ideas from different stakeholders. There is clear recognition that the work will not end in 2016—in fact, the bar will be raised higher—and that the integration of the policy, industry, and expert communities will become even more important in the future.
Seminar by Dr. Scott Sagan
On 29 September 2014, VCDNP hosted a seminar by Dr. Scott Sagan, the Caroline S.G. Munro professor of political science and senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University, on "Why Do States Want Nuclear Weapons: Three Models in Search of a Bomb." Dr. Sagan provided an overview of the development of the non-proliferation regime and its correlation with state behavior in regard to non-proliferation norms. He outlined three key analytical frameworks that explain why states seek to acquire nuclear weapons—the security, domestic politics, and norms models—and reviewed examples that illustrate the application and interaction of these models, using the examples of the Iraqi and the Iranian nuclear programs.
Seminar by Mikhail Yakushev
On 1 October, the VCDNP held a seminar by Mikhail Yakushev, vice president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), on "Global Internet Governance: Significance for Cybersecurity and International Peace." The seminar discussed the importance of global Internet governance in today's security environment.
Mr. Yakushev explained that the global Internet governance structure is increasingly seeing new stakeholders, such as academia and think tank organizations, which are interested in having a role in the global Internet governance system. More and more organizations want to be involved in establishing the principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programs that shape the use of the Internet.
Regarding cybersecurity, Mikhail Yakushev concluded that it is of utmost importance for the global Internet governance community to establish a common understanding regarding the terminology, governing principles, infrastructure, data protection, and legal legislation surrounding this area. Once a more comprehensive set of regulations can be established, then we can start working on minimizing the threat.
VCDNP and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) held their eighth intensive short course on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament from 29 September to 3 October 2014. The course brought together twenty-five diplomats, government officials, and academics to the VCDNP office in Vienna, Austria. The participants represented twenty-three states from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, South America and other regions, with many coming from their national capitals or representing their state missions in Vienna or New York.
The timing of the course was particularly relevant, just following the IAEA General Conference (22-26 September 2014) and preceding the IAEA Safeguards Symposium (20-24 October 2014) and the International Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons (8-9 December 2014). The course also addressed some of the key non-proliferation issues on the international agenda, such as Iran's nuclear program and the efforts by the United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Russia, and Germany to negotiate a deal by 24 November 2014; the developments and prospects of a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction, (WMDFZ) and new disarmament initiatives, in particular, those related to the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. The course concluded with a panel discussion looking toward the 2015 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Panelists Ambassador Alexander Kmentt (Austria), Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova (CNS), Dr. William Potter (CNS), Elena Sokova (VCDNP), and Dr. Nikolai Sokov (VCDNP), discussed current events that may affect the 2015 Review Conference, including recent developments in the Ukraine, a stall in the arms control negotiations between the United States and Russia, stagnation of nuclear disarmament talks, failure to convene a conference on the WMDFZ in the Middle East, and the growing support for the humanitarian initiative.
View the agenda for the 29 September — 3 October 2014 course
