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Senior Executive Seminar “Nuclear Weapons Proliferation: Strategic Implications for the NESA Region”

From 20 September to 24 September, the NESA Center conducted a weeklong Senior Executive Seminar on the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and the strategic implications for the NESA region. Dr. Gawdat Bahgat, Dr. Hassan Abbas, and Dr. Richard Russell moderated discussions with senior WMD experts from leading think tanks and NGOs, current and former U.S. government officials, and UN officers to explore the implications of proliferation developments on regional stability and security. The seminar consisted of ten sessions dedicated to topics including, but not limited to, missile proliferation, biological weapons, chemical weapons, and the intersection of gender issues and WMD.

With the collapse of the INF Treaty and other strategic arms control agreements like the JCPOA, the global nonproliferation regime is under an unprecedented amount of strain. Recent developments will spur renewed interest in the proliferation of missile technology and WMDs. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed society’s vulnerability to biological weapons. Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people and Russia and North Korea’s assassination of dissidents using chemical weapons pose a serious challenge to the Chemical Weapons Convention. In both cases, the lack of accountability and international condemnation eroded the norm against the use of chemical weapons. Throughout the NESA Region, missile proliferation is endemic as countries increasingly recognize the value of missile technology in warfare. Renewed multilateral and bilateral efforts will be key to preserving peace and global security in this increasingly strenuous, multifaceted threat environment.

Speakers from top left: Dr. Gawdat Bahgat (Course Director, Professor, NESA Center), Dr. Roger Kangas (Academic Dean, NESA Center), LTG Terry A. Wolff, USA (Ret.)(Director, NESA Center), Phillip Dolliff (Deputy Assistant Secretary for Non-Proliferation Programs, Bureau of International Security and Non-Proliferation, U.S. Department of State), Dr. Hassan Abbas (Professor, NESA Center), Dr. Jessica Varnum (Deputy Director, Middlebury Institute of International Studies), Mr. George Perkovich (Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Chair Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Ms. Jane Nakano (Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic & International Studies), Ms. Kelsey Davenport (Director for Nonproliferation Policy Arms Control Association), Dr. Jaime Yassif (Senior Fellow, Global Biological Policy and Programs, Nuclear Threat Initiative), Mr. Christopher King (Deputy Chief and Senior Political Affairs Officer, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs), Dr. Jeffrey Lewis (Director of EANP, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies), Dr. Richard Russell (Professor, NESA Center), Dr. Renata Hessmann Dalaqua (Program Lead, Gender and Disarmament, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research)
The views presented in this article are those of the speaker or author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD or its components.