From 8-12 June, UNIDIR’s Women in AI Fellowship welcomed 33 women diplomats representing 32 countries and 1 regional organization for a week-long training at the United Nations Office in Geneva.
This year’s programme provided the Institute’s growing network of Women in AI fellows with grounding in the technical, legal, governance and ethical dimensions of AI, particularly in terms of its applications in international peace and security. The training enabled participants to navigate present and future challenges around emerging technologies.
A programme across the AI spectrum
Through expert-led lectures, interactive sessions, and tabletop exercises, the programme reflected the breadth and diversity of both its participants and its subject matter. Fellows explored AI across multiple dimensions – the technological foundation of AI and biases, military applications and international humanitarian law, and multilateral approaches to advancing AI governance.
Discussions extended to AI’s place in the broader international defence architecture, strategic foresight around its use, and the growing policy relevance of the nexus of emerging technologies like AI and cybersecurity. Fellows were also introduced to broader considerations and implications of military AI, including through the lenses of human rights, gender considerations, responsible AI and ethics, as well as multistakeholder and regional perspectives from across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Europe.
UNIDIR actively leads initiatives to strengthen knowledge and dialogue on the governance of military AI. This fellowship reflects the Institute’s key priority of ensuring that women can participate meaningfully in shaping these discussions.
Robin Geiss, UNIDIR Director
The training allowed fellows to engage with UNIDIR experts, intergovernmental organizations, diplomats and policymakers, academia, industry representatives, military personnel, and high-level officials such as the UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu. The substantive bedrock of the sessions drew from a range of research and robust work across several countries and organizations. The programme covered the broad spectrum of UNIDIR’s work on AI, including dialogues like the upcoming Global Conference on AI, Security and Ethics, digital tools like the AI Policy Portal, and research on the cyber-AI nexus, military AI governance processes, confidence-building around military AI, and the intersection of gender and AI.
Apart from thematic sessions, the programme also included interactive tabletop exercises on the governance of military AI, a strategic foresight activity on AI, a screening and discussion of the Netflix documentary Unknown: Killer Robots, and structured daily mini-lateral discussions amongst the participants.
The fellowship also factored in opportunities for networking, including a speed-friending lunch with UNIDIR’s Women in AI Fellows from previous years as well as a dinner with the diplomatic community in Geneva. The final day included a visit to the CERN Science Gateway on the Franco-Swiss border, where fellows took a guided walking tour of the premises, learnt about emerging technologies in use at CERN, and had the chance to witness up close the functioning of a successful, science and technology-focused organization born out of international cooperation.
Fellows provided overwhelmingly positive feedback at the end of the week. Participants highlighted the importance of inclusive and well-informed approaches to AI governance, in particular the need to integrate human rights and gender perspectives while strengthening links between technical and policy communities. They also pointed to the value of sustained capacity-building, multistakeholder engagement, and the exchange of good practices to support international cooperation, drawing on lessons from existing governance processes in areas such as cybersecurity.
The way ahead
As AI becomes an established issue domain in disarmament as well as international peace and security, interest in UNIDIR’s Women in AI Fellowship has grown rapidly, with the 2026 edition receiving over 200 applications from 100 countries – the most diverse application pool thus far. UNIDIR is building on this momentum by expanding its capacity-building offerings and exploring opportunities to deliver the fellowship across additional regional contexts.
Uncertainty is not an impediment for governance.
UNIDIR Women in AI Fellow
The 2026 Women in AI Fellowship was made possible by the generous support of donors to UNIDIR’s Integrated Approaches Programme and UNIDIR’s Security and Technology Programme, specifically Canada, Czechia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Microsoft.