Since 2006, EWI has been working to overcome political obstacles that inhibit efforts to eliminate weapons of mass destruction.

Governments are divided on responses to threats from weapons of mass destruction, especially from nuclear weapons. At the Millennium Review summit in New York in 2005, heads of UN member states agreed for the first time ever that the threat from WMD is one of the most serious and imminent threats to human security.

Yet, they could not agree on practical responses. The most significant hurdles to consensus on such responses are the divisions between the United States and Russia on one hand and, on the other, divisions between NATO and countries such as China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Syria, and North Korea.

EWI works to overcome these divisions. EWI has relied on its record as a trusted convener and its networks at the highest levels of government – particularly in Russia, China and the United States – to address political obstacles that have stalled global arms control discussions.

A series of events and meetings organised in 2007 and 2008 have helped to reenergize these discussions. The most prominent of these was Seizing the Moment: Breakthrough Measures to Build a New East-West Consensus on Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disarmament, a historic consultation at the United Nations on UN Day, October 24, 2008. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivered the keynote address, offering a five-point proposal to eliminate nuclear weapons and an unprecedented endorsement of an international convention against such weapons.

EWI has also convened teams of U.S. and Russian scientists to examine Iran’s nuclear abilities. The yearlong Joint Threat Assessment of Iranian Nuclear and Missile Capabilities carefully assesses Iran’s capabilities and U.S. and Russian efforts, such as U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, to address them.