Commentary
Announcing the ELN’s New Programmatic Structure
An update from the ELN’s Senior Leadership announcing our new programmatic structure.
Commentary
AI enables strategic stupidity. That should terrify Europe
AI-enabled warfare is giving the United States unprecedented tactical reach while eroding strategic restraint, writes Erasmus University Rotterdam Professor Michal Onderco. From the Caracas raid to strikes in Iran, reduced risks enable operations with minimal casualties. That ease lowers the bar for war, leaving allies exposed to miscalculation and dependence on a partner willing to act without planning the aftermath.
Commentary
P5 perspectives on the 2026 NPT Review Conference: China
In the fourth in our series exploring P5 perspectives on the forthcoming 2026 NPT Review Conference, Tianjiao Jiang sets out China’s position, emphasising the need for renewed P5 dialogue, greater strategic clarity around nuclear modernisation, and practical steps to reduce nuclear risks. He highlights China’s opposition to extended deterrence and the importance of cooperative approaches to tackling regional proliferation challenges.
Networks
Commentaries
Commentary
Hans Blix: Can arms control survive this dangerous age of war and rearmament?
Veteran diplomat and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Emeritus Hans Blix warns that a volatile world of renewed great-power conflict and accelerating rearmament is eroding the foundations of arms control. While nuclear deterrence still restrains escalation, diplomatic failure, proliferation risks, and waning trust in global agreements raise urgent questions about whether meaningful disarmament, and lasting peace, remain politically achievable.
Podcast
The Women Leaders podcast: The final battle in the Middle East?
Following the agreement of the ceasefire between Iran and the United States earlier this week, ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El is joined by Professor Lina Khatib of both the Harvard Belfer Center and Chatham House, to assess who “won” this war, the ramifications for Iran’s proxies across the region, and what the survival of the regime means for the wider world.
Commentary
P5 perspectives on the 2026 NPT Review Conference: United Kingdom
In the third in our series exploring P5 perspectives on the forthcoming 2026 NPT Review Conference, Sahil Shah looks at the UK’s approach. He argues that its most effective role is not to promise what the P5 cannot deliver, but to strengthen the conditions under which progress remains possible: practical measures grounded in existing commitments, sustained dialogue, and continued investment in the institutions and relationships that keep restraint possible.
Policy briefs and reports
Report
Managing long-term confrontation with Russia: Elements of a European strategy
The evolving confrontation between Europe and Russia is not a temporary crisis but a long-term condition that must be managed. In this report, ELN Senior Policy Fellow Alexander Graef sets out a strategy for governing a prolonged and adversarial relationship with Moscow beyond the war, focused on strengthening European political agency, credible deterrence, and governing escalation risks.
Report
Towards a better understanding of human bias in nuclear decision-making and its interaction with emerging and disruptive technologies
This report by Ganna Pogrebna and ELN Senior Policy Fellow Rishi Paul presents findings from an ELN workshop that examined the ‘human’ and ‘machine’ components of bias and their points of interaction. The report highlights how human judgment and AI systems can interact in ways that reinforce, rather than reduce, risk.
Policy brief
Gender backlash in disarmament and arms control: Safeguarding progress amid rising resistance
Gender perspectives are integral to credible, effective, and inclusive disarmament and arms control. This policy brief by ELN Policy Fellow Jana Baldus examines the gender backlash in multilateral disarmament and arms control, and its implications. It suggests two approaches to preserve progress on gender equality and intersectional gender perspectives and calls on states, international organisations, and civil society to act collectively to defend and further advance gender perspectives.
Podcasts and media
Podcast
The Women Leaders podcast: Iranians at war
As the US-Israeli war on Iran enters its third week, the situation appears bleak, with Iran and its neighbours’ infrastructure destroyed, the world’s energy market in turmoil, and the reputation of the US severely damaged in the eyes of its allies. ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El is joined by Iran historian Dr Liora Hendelman-Baavur of Tel Aviv University and Maneli Mirkhan, strategist and Iran expert, to break down recent events and look to the future.
Podcast
The Women Leaders podcast: Destruction and disorder
Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979 was a shock to the Middle East, with the Gulf states aligning with the US, and Iran cultivating a “Shia Crescent” in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Dina Esfandiary joins ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El to guide us through the historical and geographic complexities of Iranian-American hostilities.
Podcast
The Women Leaders podcast: Iran at a crossroads
Iran is at a boiling point. In January, mass protests broke out across the country, and many thousands of people were wounded and killed. Meanwhile, the US has moved an aircraft carrier and a number of destroyers close to Iran in a military threat which remains unclear in its aims. To untangle these and many other threads, ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El welcomes back Iran specialist Roxane Farmanfarmaian, her co-Senior Associate Fellow at the ELN, for a deep and fascinating examination of Iran at a crossroads.
Group statements
Group statement
Statement by the Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group (EASLG): Call for strengthened fail-safe measures to prevent accidental nuclear use
Former and serving senior officials, military leaders, and experts from across the Euro-Atlantic region call for strengthened fail-safe measures to prevent accidental nuclear use.
Group statement
Statement by the Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group (EASLG): Support for space security and stability
Former and serving senior officials, military leaders, and experts from across the Euro-Atlantic region call for support for space security and stability.
Group statement
Statement by the Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group (EASLG): Three essential steps for reversing the slide to nuclear war
Former and serving senior officials, military leaders, and experts from across the Euro-Atlantic region put forward three urgent steps for nuclear-armed states to take to build on the essential principle that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.