[Seminar] Asser Institute Doctoral Seminar Series - Nuclear Weapons: Challenges and Opportunities

Following the success of our first PhD and postdoctoral research seminar where we focused on conventional arms control, we now invite researchers to join us in person at the Asser Institute in The Hague for the second 2022 arms control seminar now focused on the topic of nuclear weapons. 

Background
The Asser Institute Doctoral Seminar Series on International Arms Control Law will provide a select number of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers with insights into the current and future issues raised by International Arms Control Law with perspectives from international law and related disciplines. At each seminar, academics and practitioners will deliver four expert lectures on the international legal framework of arms control, geo-political perspectives on arms control, institutional and procedural frameworks for control and disarmament, as well as emerging issues and trends. Additionally, the seminar provides an opportunity for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers to present an aspect of their research as a springboard for discussions on the topic of International Arms Control, seeking to foster interdisciplinary exchange among peers in a low-stakes environment.

Nuclear Weapons: Challenges and Opportunities
The Tenth Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is due to be held in August this year. Since the delegates last met, numerous controversial developments have taken place in the field. Strategic instability is increasing among nuclear weapon states, with several nuclear and conventional weapons agreements and practices discarded since the last review conference and nuclear weapon states reviving their reliance on nuclear weapons. Frustrated with the slow process of disarmament, non-nuclear weapon states acted to elaborate a new treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons for all states on the basis of international humanitarian law. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which has 86 signatories, entered into force on 22 January 2021. The treaty has split states into two camps, those favouring the NPT deterrence model and those favouring global disarmament. Given these factors, the Tenth NPT Review Conference will provide a crucial moment to build new consensus on arms control processes for the future.

The seminar will be structured around three lectures spread over two days on the topics of:

• the normative shift in nuclear arms control
• negotiating arms control treaties
• the Tenth NPT Review Conference

You will also participate in a roundtable discussion on your research topic, guided by Asser Institute researchers. Additionally, the participating doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers have the option to give an individual 15 to 20 minute presentation on their research.

The seminar also concludes with an expert panel discussion reflecting on the Tenth NPT Review Conference followed by a reception.

Click here to download the latest version of the detailed programme of the seminar.

Participation
Participants may be undertaking doctoral/postdoctoral research in legal, historical, political or theoretical fields related to international arms control. Participants are asked to present an abstract summarizing an aspect of their doctoral research related to the Arms Trade and/or nuclear weapons.

Doctoral students that are interested in participating in the workshop should register their interest with Thea Coventry by 12 September. Participants wishing to present their research should submit a short abstract on their presentation topic by email to Thea by Monday 19 September.

Timeline

Coordinators
Thilo Marauhn

Thilo Marauhn is a researcher in the research strand 'Regulation in the public interest: Disruptive technologies in peace and security.' Since 2016 Thilo has been Head of the Research Group on International Law at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), Member of the Leibniz Association. PRIF is one of the leading peace research institutes in Europe. Since 2017 he has been President of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission. Marauhn combines his endowed professorship in Arms Control Law with his work as Professor of Public Law and International Law at the Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen and at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt in Germany.

Thea Coventry

Thea Coventry also forms part of the ‘Regulation in the public interest: disruptive technologies in peace and security’ strand of research. Thea is completing her PhD (Leiden University) investigating the role of accidental and strategic textual ambiguity in the progressive development and codification of legal rules in the field of State criminal jurisdiction. Her research interests include international arms control law, maritime security, and transnational criminal law.

Critical knowledge for contemporary diplomacy: Advance your knowledge on the impact of Weapons of Mass Destruction
The challenges posed to international security by nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons have recently reached levels of urgency not seen since the Cold War. There is an increasing demand for professionals in the field of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) to tackle the challenges of today’s non-proliferation and disarmament agenda with a more integrated understanding of these issues. From 19 to 23 September, the Asser Institute in The Hague will host the thirteenth training programme on disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, co-organised with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Register now.