EWI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction program began in direct response to the United Nations’ 2005 Millennium Review summit in 2005, when UN member states called nuclear weapons as one of the most serious and imminent threats to human security. Since 2006, EWI has worked to help countries surmount the political obstacles to achieving a world free of nuclear weapons. Our work ranges from high-level consultations at the United Nations, to organizing bilateral teams to examine specific problems, to less formal discussions at our New York offices.

 The Nuclear Discussion Forum

Today, our WMD work centers on the Nuclear Discussion Forum, organized in partnership with the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan. The Forum, which met five times between February and August 2011, engaged the UN diplomatic and policymaking community, including representatives from nuclear weapon states, non-nuclear weapon states, international organizations, and outside experts. Each meeting focused on a key issue related to disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation. After initial remarks from expert speakers, an open discussion followed in an effort to build trust among key states, identify the next milestones towards global zero, and mobilize international political will around concrete and practical actions.

In September 2011 EWI will disseminate a record of proceedings that highlight the main findings from the series. The work and outcome of the Forum will be presented at the UN General Assembly First Committee meetings and at a high-level workshop at the UN headquarters on September 1, 2011 commemorating the International Day against Nuclear Tests.

What’s Next?

On October 24, 2011 (United Nations Day), EWI the Global Security Institute, and the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies will convene a high-level consultation at the United Nations with the participation of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. There, participants will evaluate progress made since October 2008 towards long-term nuclear disarmament goals, specifically towards implementing the Secretary-General’s five point proposal for disarmament. The panel will also identify and advocate new opportunities for progress.

A History of Making Change

On October 24, 2008, EWI organized a historic consultation at the United Nations on UN Day, Seizing the Moment: Breakthrough Measures to Build a New East-West Consensus on Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disarmament. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivered the keynote address, offering five practical recommendations for eliminating nuclear weapons – a speech that later became known as “the EWI speech.”

EWI has also worked to reframed contentious issues in the nuclear field as opportunities to build trust and produce meaningful policy recommendations. In 2008, in response to U.S.-Russia tensions over the Bush administration’s planned missile defense system designed to counter Iranian weapons, EWI brought together a team of U.S. and Russian experts to examine Iran’s missile and nuclear weapons capabilities. In 2009, the team released the first U.S.-Russia Joint Threat Assessment, which concluded that the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear missile program was not imminent, and that planned missile defense system would not be effective.  According to The Wall Street Journal, the report played a role in the Obama administration’s decision to scrap the plans and design a system more in line with existing threats – a decision that went a long way toward pushing the reset button on U.S.-Russia relations.