Accompanying the Third meeting of TPNW state parties in New York, PRIF and ACONA hosted a side event on March 7, 2025, at the UN Headquarters to consider the training of future arms control negotiators amidst rising geopolitical rivalries and militaristic nationalism. Together with representatives of states and civil society, researchers discussed what ACONA’s professional development program was able to achieve despite the war in Ukraine and how future challenges can be met.
PRIF was involved with Sascha Hach and Timothée Hillier-Davis. Also on the panel were Dr. Cristian R. Wittmann (SEHLAC/ICAN/Unipampa) and ACONA '25 Fellow Aleksandra Zubenko (MA candidate in the international double degree program “Global Security, Nuclear Policy, and WMD Nonproliferation”).
Bringing together participants from different geopolitical “camps” as well as emerging leaders from the Global South, the Arms Control Negotiation Academy (ACONA) aims to break a deadlock: While the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has provided important impetus for the multilateralization of arms control and disarmament, nuclear-weapon states and their allies continued to follow a traditional arms control understanding and did not respond to that offer of cooperation. In view of current developments, this means stagnation or even further erosion of the nuclear order and international arms control – a challenge that future security experts and practitioners will have to face.
PRIF is represented on the ACONA Executive Board by Christopher Daase, Head of the Research Department International Security.