The Arms Control Negotiation Academy

The Arms Control Negotiation Academy (ACONA) is a 12-month, high-level professional development program for a competitively selected cohort of rising international security experts and practitioners.
The world faces new security threats, a global arms race, and an increasing number of wars. Great power and regional tensions are on the rise. The post-World War II security architecture is disintegrating. In this crucial moment in history, ACONA prepares the next generation of arms control negotiators to meet the security challenges of our time.

ACONA is one of the few places in the world where mid-career scholars, diplomats and decision-makers from all continents - including the US, Europe, Russia, China and the Global South - can meet in person, learn from each other and work together. The goal is to build an epistemic community that will lead the field of arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament into the future.
In an increasingly dangerous and fragmented world, we seek to establish ACONA as the world's leading institution for new thinking in cooperative security across geopolitical fault lines.
The ambitious training curriculum addresses critical historical case studies, technological know-how, and advanced negotiation skills in the realm of arms control. Participants attend three boot camps, earn a Certificate in Arms Control Negotiation, and become part of the ACONA network.
The training program includes negotiation master classes and immersive simulations, design thinking workshops and research group work in multilateral teams. The focus is on the nuclear area. However, high-level senior experts with practical experience in various areas of arms control and security policy ensure interdisciplinary and state-of-the-art quality.
ACONA is an international consortium led by Höfði Reykjavík Peace Centre at the University of Iceland, in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), the Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.
In 2019, six organizations joined forces to launch ACONA: the Negotiation Task Force at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Woodrow Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program, Höfði Reykjavík Peace Centre, the Higher School of Economics, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and PRIF.
In 2021, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and the MTA joined as affiliated organizations.
In March 2022, the membership in the ACONA Consortium of the Higher School of Economics and Moscow State Institute of International Relations was suspended.
In July 2023, the Negotiation Task Force left the ACONA Consortium and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University joined the ACONA Consortium as an affiliated organization.