Robust verification is an important element of arms control and disarmament. With time, verification procedures have become quite elaborate and intrusive, reflecting the increasingly ambitious disarmament goals and the generally favorable international environment of the past. More recently, however, the international situation became more complicated as cooperation between key participants in the arms control and disarmament process has all but ended and their relationships became characterized by a considerable degree of mistrust. These developments appear to make new verifiable arms control agreements virtually impossible. However, the practice of arms control shows that even in a rather adversarial environment properly designed verification mechanisms should be able to provide sufficient confidence in compliance with obligations assumed by states.
The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and the Government of New Zealand are pleased to invite you to the virtual side-event “Disarmament Verification: from Mistrust to Cooperation” on the sidelines of the 77th UNGA First Committee. This event will discuss the importance of national and cooperative verification tools, the potential role of open-source information, and adversarial vs. cooperative approach to verification.
A recording of the event is available on the UNIDIR Youtube Channel (or see below).
WHERE & WHEN
This event will be held online on Monday, 17 October 2022, 13:15-14:30 New York / 19:15-20:30 Geneva
Speakers
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Amy Woolf, RUSI and Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security
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Nick Ritchie, University of York
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Pavel Podvig, UNIDIR
Participants
UNIDIR encourages the participation of diplomats, national representatives, policymakers, as well as academics, practitioners and other experts working on or interested in issues pertaining to disarmament and arms control.
RSVP
Please register through Eventbrite here. The link to access the meeting will be emailed to registered participants prior to the event.