This commentary collection compiles 15 articles by 18 ELN network members and external collaborators as part of the ELN’s Protecting the Non-Proliferation Treaty project. The collection was originally published for the 2024 NPT Preparatory Committee.
In advance of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) 2026 Review Conference, ELN Policy and Research Director Oliver Meier argues that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has thrown the nuclear non-proliferation regime into crisis. Despite this, opportunities remain to revitalise multilateral frameworks. If N5 states are willing to compartmentalise nuclear arms control, and if the existing international organisations that govern arms nuclear control are better leveraged to build on past achievements, progress on mitigating nuclear risks can still be made.
In a new policy brief, ELN Senior Associate Fellows Simon Lunn and Nicholas Williams examine the dual-capable nature of Russia’s medium and short-range missiles, and their implications for NATO’s strategy. Acknowledging the relationship between the nuclear and conventional dimensions, and in the context of Putin’s menacing references to Russia’s nuclear weapons, it looks at the impact on NATO strategy at both levels.
As leaders gather in D.C. for NATO’s special 75th anniversary summit, a new Labour government comes into office in the United Kingdom, and France comes to terms with the surprising results of Macron’s snap election, ELN Senior Associate Fellow Ilana Bet-El breaks down these recent geopolitical developments with Jane Kinninmont, ELN Policy and Impact Director, and Florence Ferrando, YGLN member, producer of this podcast series, and Senior Consultant in Cyber and Strategic Intelligence at Forward Global.
As leaders gather in Washington for a three day summit to mark NATO’s 75th anniversary, ELN Senior Associate Fellows Nicholas Williams and Simon Lunn analyse the re-emergence of collective defence as a priority within the alliance, and what it means for national governments. The paper argues that NATO’s regional plans should be the subject of parliamentary scrutiny by individual national parliaments to ensure that national commitments to NATO are consistent with the resources and political aims of their respective countries.
Ilana Bet-El, Senior Associate Fellow at the European Leadership Network, is joined by Inna Pidluska, Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation in Ukraine, and Anna Kovalenko, former member of the Ukrainian Parliament and a prominent civic activist, for a lively discussion surrounding Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine’s fight to join the democratic world, and what Ukraine means to Ukrainians.