UNIDIR marks Disarmament Week
Many countries, international organisations, and experts think the risk of nuclear war is now higher than it has been for decades. The risk of miscalculation and nuclear escalation is rising because of increasing tension and conflict involving countries that have nuclear weapons. The risk of nuclear war is also increased by leaders talking more openly about using nuclear weapons, by countries upgrading their arsenals, and by new technologies like AI being built into them. But no one has used a nuclear weapon since 1945, which shows that nuclear war is not inevitable, even when tensions are running high. Countries all over the world, whether they have nuclear weapons or not, need to work together to prevent a nuclear war in future, including through the United Nations.
Learn more: Nuclear weapons
Yes, AI can contribute to the development of biological weapons, including by helping to design new biological agents or facilitating procurement of materials and equipment. But even if AI can make it easier to create new biological weapons, other skills, equipment and materials would still be needed to produce a functioning biological weapon.
Learn more: Chemical and biological weapons
Yes, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are a severe threat to public safety and could even put international security at risk. Cyberattacks can weaken or even paralyse many things that people rely on day to day, like power stations, hospitals, trains, planes, and internet providers. And a crisis in one city, region, or country can spread quickly across borders, causing national, regional, and global disruptions. Protecting against cyberattacks and making sure we know how to respond when they happen is a top priority for countries, whether acting alone or collectively through the United Nations, for example.
Learn more: Cybersecurity
Yes. AI will help militaries act faster and process more information at scale, but this could also create new risks. AI systems can make mistakes, behave unpredictably or produce inaccurate results. Over-reliance on AI could increase the risk of accidental escalation, miscalculation or harm during conflicts.
Learn more: Artificial intelligence
No, militaries are not using brain-computer interfaces yet, but new discoveries in academic research and commercial neurotechnology are helping military neurotechnology develop very quickly. Brain-computer interfaces have a lot of potential for militaries. They could allow for a direct connection between soldiers and drones, for instance, as well as helping improving cognitive performance and skill acquisition during training. Brain-computer interfaces could also have medical applications like restoring mobility for injured personnel.
Learn more: Science and technology
Improvised weapons are weapons made outside the arms industry, often by modifying everyday items in small workshops or even at home. They tend to be cheap to make because the materials are easy to find and the know-how is publicly available. Well-known examples include homemade bombs (improvised explosive devices, or IEDs), guns made in workshops or on 3D printers (“ghost guns”), and off-the-shelf drones adapted to carry explosives.
Learn more: Conventional weapons
Drones are becoming more common in warfare because they allow people to take part in conflicts from further away, reducing the risk to their lives. They also give countries a relatively cheap way to attack, defend, transport, and monitor from the skies, because many of the drones used in conflict today started out as commercial products. They are easy to buy or build, and simple to turn into weapons. But this also makes it easier for non-State armed groups like terrorists and criminal networks to use them.
Learn more: Missiles and drones
Climate change doesn’t cause armed conflicts on its own, but it does intensify other problems that can cause them. Droughts, floods, rising temperatures, and wildfires, for example, can disrupt livelihoods, force people from their homes, and make it harder to find food and water, leading to more competition for fewer resources. If these pressures occur in places where authorities already struggle to enforce the law, some communities can feel excluded, old tensions can be stirred up, and this can give armed groups an opportunity to recruit new members.
Learn more: Interconnected global risks
Women are often left out of international negotiations because many countries used to stop women from joining their diplomatic service and because many harmful gender stereotypes still exist even if those rules have mostly been changed. It can also be harder for women to balance diplomatic work with their lives outside work, and there has been a lack of role models for women to follow. Fewer than 10% of diplomats in disarmament negotiations were women in 1980, but this figure has risen a lot in recent decades, reaching 36% in 2025.
Learn more: Inclusive global security
A conflict in space involving destruction of satellites and other space objects could create a chain reaction producing so much debris that we would no longer be able to use Earth’s orbit or reach outer space so easily. Damage to space systems would also disrupt services that our security and our everyday lives depend on: positioning systems for trade and travel, precise timing for payment systems, imagery for tracking weather and disasters, and communications and surveillance for peace and security operations. This is why UNIDIR and the United Nations do everything they can to help countries prevent an arms race in outer space.
Learn more: Space security
People join armed groups because of their political goals, poverty, the promise of money or protection, a need to belong, or because they are forced to. People leave because they lose faith in the group, because they feel unsafe, or because they see the chance of a better life outside it. Whether someone can actually leave an armed group depends on whether other members threaten them, and whether they can earn a living and get back to normal life once they are out.
Learn more: Conflict prevention and peacebuilding
It is hard to reach agreement on disarmament because it involves some of a country’s most sensitive security interests, like military capabilities and national security. Most disarmament treaties and processes work on the basis of consensus, meaning everyone must agree for progress to be made. Agreements reached in this way carry more weight, because every country has signed up to them, but it also means a single country can hold up the whole process.
Learn more: Disarmament forums