Nuclear and Multilateral Disarmament
The risk of nuclear weapons use is rising, not receding. Intensifying geopolitical competition, the erosion of arms control agreements, and growing pressures on the global non-proliferation regime are increasing the likelihood of miscalculation and undermining decades of crucial progress toward disarmament.
Staff Contacts
The ELN’s Nuclear and Multilateral Disarmament Programme works to advance sustainable and irreversible reductions in nuclear and other weapons. It focuses on strengthening the international frameworks, legal instruments, and cooperative arrangements that underpin disarmament and non-proliferation, while addressing the political and technical barriers that continue to impede progress.
Combining the work of leading policy experts and the collective experience of the ELN’s robust cross-national network, the programme develops realistic, actionable policy options and builds support for disarmament across Europe and beyond.
Through focused research, high-level dialogue, and targeted engagement, it works directly with decision-makers to shape policy debates, strengthen key multilateral processes, including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and drive practical outcomes. By leveraging the ELN’s unique convening power, the programme translates analysis into impact, reinforcing international law, revitalising cooperation, and advancing the urgent conditions needed for meaningful and lasting disarmament.
Programme Publications
Commentary
Beyond great powers: the role of small states in the Security Council
Former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane argues that small states can wield outsized influence at the UN Security Council through coalition-building, diplomacy, and collective action. Reflecting on the recent Security Council elections, she explores how countries with limited power have shaped global governance and why their role is becoming increasingly important.
Commentary
Network reflections: 2026 NPT Review Conference
The Eleventh NPT Review Conference (RevCon) begins on 27 April 2026 in New York City. Here, members of the ELN’s ‘Protecting the NPT’ project reflect on what they hope to see at this RevCon and offer advice to diplomats entering negotiations.
Event
The European Leadership Network at the 2026 NPT Review Conference
Building on our work throughout the review cycle, join the ELN for two state-sponsored side events at the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, United Nations, New York.
Related Content
Commentary
A managed result, but not a meaningless one: Reflections ahead of Russia’s Duma election
Russia’s elections may be repressive and predictable, but that does not make them meaningless. While no one predicts that United Russia will be denied a majority in the upcoming Duma election, managing the political space has become more difficult than in the past. As Julian G. Waller writes, deviation from the Kremlin’s desired result could have wider consequences for elite politics.
Event
Three Strikes and We’re Out? What’s Next for the NPT Review Process
Ambassador Đỗ Hùng Việt, Vietnam’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York, and President of the 2026 NPT Review Conference, reflects candidly on the 2026 NPT Review Conference’s collapse without consensus: What was achieved, what broke it, and what comes next. In conversation with the ELN’s Oliver Meier and Jana Baldus.
Podcast
Ok, Doomer! podcast: What’s next for the nuclear non-proliferation treaty?
In our latest episode of the Ok, Doomer! podcast, we ask what comes next for the Non-Proliferation Treaty, featuring a range of distinguished guests including UN Under-Secretary-General Izumi Nakamitsu, Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, and Thomas Countryman. Plus, a deep dive into the review process with more nuclear policy experts.