Phase two.
As the project advanced, the structure was refined to better address the evolving challenges facing the review process. Project members formed two dedicated working groups: one focusing on the growing salience of nuclear weapons and another on preserving existing commitments to avoid rollback. We continued to engage officials, diplomats, and like-minded initiatives, developing a range of outputs to complement and enhance debate.
Project members and staff participated in and hosted events at the 2023 Preparatory Committee in Vienna. These interactions helped build relationships with key stakeholders. They increased the project’s visibility and raised the ELN’s profile as a valued actor within the NPT community, including with the Committee Chair, Finnish Ambassador Jarmo Viinanen.
Publications during this phase covered a broader range of issues, including emerging and disruptive technologies, regional dynamics, and the wider security environment. In this phase, there was a notable increase in participation from next-generation experts across analysis and engagement activities.
Lessons and impact
This phase signalled a transition from broad-ranging exploration to more focused, policy-oriented efforts affecting the review cycle. Increased engagement with diplomats ensured that outputs reflected both real-time developments and practical limitations.
The formation of specialised working groups improved the quality and real-world applicability of both analysis and recommendations. During our engagement and outreach, officials provided valuable feedback, helping to shape subsequent outputs and future trajectory.
In April 2024, we were saddened to lose ELN senior network member and project participant, former Ambassador Adam Kobieracki. Ambassador Kobieracki was an early supporter of the project to whom we owe tremendous gratitude.
In 2022, he spoke at the RevCon in New York on behalf of the ELN, telling officials, “What we need is to educate and train a new generation of arms controllers. Future arms control, starting with nuclear arms control, will be different from what we knew in the past […] retired arms controllers may only be of limited assistance to the new generation. They can share their experience and knowledge on how to conduct arms control as a negotiation process in general – for example, they may pass fundamental principles and rules of the game to younger colleagues – but it will be up to the new generation to fill the process with substance.”
Taking this advice, the project’s structure and our non-hierarchical, intergenerational approach also underscore the importance of incorporating next-generation perspectives into the policy debate, expanding the discussion and showcasing the ELN as actively fostering the field’s advancement and longevity.
