Year: 2021
Type: editorial
Abstract: The term “crisis” is widely used in relation to arms control. A simple search in the journal “Arms Control Today” generated more than 6000 hits for headlines featuring the word “crisis”—and that was before Russia attacked neighboring Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Already before the Ukraine War, the COVID-19 pandemic had brought many arms control regimes to a halt. Review conferences and meetings of states were cancelled, the United Nations and its Office of Disarmament (UNODA) were temporarily closed. Now, two years into the pandemic, meetings of states are still being held in hybrid formats with the majority of diplomats and civil society participants holding debates in online fora. Other meetings, such as the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which was scheduled for August 2021 and had been postponed to January 2022, has been rescheduled again for August 2022. The First Meeting of States Parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) had to be postponed as well and is now scheduled to take place in June, 2022. The cancellation of the conferences has resulted in delayed or stalled implementation of arms control agreements.
Authors: Simone Wisotzki, Ulrich Kühn
Language: German
Topic: Nuclear Issues and Defense
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,890
OpenAlex ID: W4281291867