Current Research

Verification: Nuclear Disarmament

Verification: Nuclear Disarmament

01/02/2016

How best to advance multilateral nuclear disarmament discussions has become a major focus in forums such as the United Nations General Assembly and subsidiary bodies of the General Assembly including the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) established on 7 December 2015 by resolution A/RES/70/33. Irrespective, however, of the approach or process by which states decide to take nuclear disarmament forward, mechanisms will at some point be needed to verify the destruction of nuclear armaments and assure all possessors and non-possessors alike that no nuclear weapons remain in existence. This project surveys current work on verification mechanisms as well as possible precedents for future work. It also identifies key challenges and issues that will need to be resolved if a nuclear-weapon free world is to become a reality. The survey will be published during the 2016 United Nations General Assembly.