The postponement of the NPT Review from April 2020 presents both challenges and opportunities for diplomacy. With international Track I and II diplomacy forced into virtual format, it has become essential to find new ways to support that work. In partnership with the UK FCDO, the foreign ministries of the Netherlands and Sweden, and Sandia National Laboratory, Wilton Park convened a second virtual dialogue in a series to assess how to make the most effective use of the delay, and keep NPT diplomacy building momentum towards the rescheduled Review.
We assessed how to keep the permanently operating features on track, but also develop strategies for how to deal with what will have changed. The latter covers macro-level issues such as the post-corona international environment and how new political dynamics will spill over into nuclear non-proliferation policy, how post-Covid international cooperation will work, what the economic impact of Covid will be on nuclear activities, and the implications of a new Administration in the US. More NPT-specific issues included the status of nuclear arms control, Iran and the fate of the JCPOA, disarmament diplomacy before and at the Review, re-assessing nuclear risks and consequence management, and future paths for peaceful nuclear uses.
Wilton Park reference number: WP1918V
