As European leaders prepare a peace plan for Ukraine, ELN Policy and Impact Director Jane Kinninmont and Dr Loïc Simonet argue that they should draw on the OSCE, as the organisation that helped manage risks and offer communication channels during the Cold War, and which includes Russia along with Ukraine.
A new report published from the European Leadership Network’s New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) project calls for a systemic international approach to be taken to address man-made existential risk. The risks from nuclear weapons, climate change, biological threats, and AI are interconnected and cross-cutting lessons should be drawn.
In times of change, politicians often seek a return to past stability—but today, amid the most significant changes to Euro-Atlantic security since the end of the Cold War, no leader speaks of a status quo ante. In this special episode, ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El and Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže discuss Ukraine, the new realities in European defence, and the enduring impact of Russian and Soviet occupation.
Despite not yet entering into force, the CTBT has seen some remarkable successes in establishing a global norm against nuclear testing and a robust verification system. However, rising geopolitical tensions underscore the urgent need for full ratification. Eleonora Neri of the Younger Generation Leaders Network (YGLN) argues for states to redouble efforts to universalise the Treaty and reinforce global non-proliferation commitments.
Three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and as New START enters its penultimate year in force, Nicholas Lokker writes that Russia is seeking to extricate itself from previously established arms control agreements it perceives as elements of the broader Western-dominated political and security order that it aims to overturn. He also argues that whilst Russia is unwilling to return to the negotiating table now, economics and external pressure from allies could herald a resumption of talks in future.
As part of the ELN’s New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) network’s podcast, “Ok, Doomer!”, ELN Policy and Impact Director Jane Kinninmont spoke with Historian, Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Professor Francis Gavin, on the history of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.