Welcome to a special expanded episode of Ok, Doomer! Today, we ask a fundamental and urgent question: What comes next for the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) amid mounting pressure on the global nuclear order, after states parties again failed to reach consensus?
This episode was released to coincide with our webinar “Three Strikes and We’re Out? What’s Next for the NPT Review Process“, with Ambassador Đỗ Hùng Việt, President of the 2026 NPT Review Conference, in conversation with the ELN about how the conference unfolded and what it means for the NPT’s next chapter.
To begin, hosts Bekki and Edan are joined by ELN Policy Fellow Jana Baldus to set the scene: what is the NPT, why does the Review Conference matter, and what was at stake this year?
In a special debate, Bekki is joined by ELN Senior Network Member Ambassador Alexander Kmentt — Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations Office and the Specialised Institutions in Geneva — and former US Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation, Thomas Countryman, to deliberate: Is the NPT’s grand bargain over?
Edan’s panel brings together Jana Baldus, Emmanuel Maître, Senior Research Fellow at the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, and the YGLN’s Almuntaser Albalawi, also Senior Researcher at UNIDIR, for a closer look at the 2026 Review Conference and key regional and procedural issues. Together, they discuss:
- Why the NPT review process has struggled to produce consensus
- How geopolitical tensions are affecting cooperation among NPT States Parties
- What meaningful progress could still look like
- How the review process might be strengthened for the future
In a new segment, “The Forecast”, UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu speaks with Bekki on whether the NPT remains up to the task as the final arms control agreement constraining nuclear weapons states in an increasingly fractious world.
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The European Leadership Network itself as an institution holds no formal policy positions. The opinions articulated above represent the views of the speakers rather than the European Leadership Network or its members. The ELN aims to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time, to further its charitable purposes.
