A vital role to play

Wilton Park has a proud tradition of defining global challenges, and catalysing international policy responses in areas such as conflict resolution, development, global health, climate change, and nuclear non-proliferation.

Resilience is now emerging as a new global frontier, where building consensus on the challenge is critical to addressing it, and Wilton Park is playing a defining role in supporting this work.

The UK deserves to be particularly well positioned. Recently the UK was referred to as being ‘small enough to be nimble, but big enough to matter’. That includes the uniquely influential science and technology, cultural and creative, financial and voluntary sectors.

If that combination of size and flexibility can be optimised, especially by clarity of common purpose and effective partnerships between government, private sector and civil society, then the UK stands to not only ride out and face down the growing global turmoil, but importantly, help other countries to do so too.

In building and directing all these partnerships, Wilton Park has an increasingly vital role to play, and we are ever more committed to pursuing it.

Disability rights: advancing the agenda

In the lead up to the 20th anniversary of the 2006 adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), as well as the five year review of the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy (UNDIS), in 2024, this week’s Retreat on Disability Rights was timed to precede the 2025 Global Disability Summit.

Since the adoption of the CRPD, the UN has taken great strides towards the inclusion of a disability perspective in its work in multiple areas, ranging from awareness raising, to more accessible and inclusive work environments. Aside from the CRPD and UNDIS, the UN has other mechanisms to promote disability rights. These mechanisms have undoubtedly fostered change, including the adoption of specific, tailored disability strategies in some UN specialised agencies.

The Retreat provided an overview of progress made; explored persistent challenges; identified opportunities for action, and put forward recommendations and concrete proposals to enhance efforts in support of the rights of persons with disabilities at the local, national and international levels.

We brought together Organisations for Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) alongside UN agencies and States to discuss ways in which to ensure persons with disabilities are meaningfully involved in policy making and practical application on the ground.

Find out more

Upcoming events

Strengthening deterrence: reinvigorating strategic thinking across the Alliance

In early June, we’ll convene this conference in partnership with NATO Allied Command Transformation, to support the work of the Four Square Deterrence Study.

Participants will discuss deterrence scenarios relevant to NATO, and how theory can support with tailored deterrence insights and build understanding of new deterrence theories in a NATO context.

Addressing the rise of global hatred on the basis of religion or belief

Later this month, we’ll be exploring how to address the rise in global hatred on the basis of religion or belief. At a time when hatred on the basis of religion or belief, including hate speech, crimes, discrimination, and violence, is on the rise, we’ll be focused on hearing about, and learning from, practical best practice examples that have contributed either to reducing hatred online or to mitigating the effects on the wider community.

In partnership with the FCDO and the Office of International Religious Freedom of the US Department of State.

Preparing for success at the fifth review conference of the mine ban treaty

This invitation-only Wilton Park Retreat will create a safe space for the discussion of key mine action issues and challenges and come up with options and recommendations for the next five-year sector workplan that will be endorsed at November’s Review Conference.

Focus will be on bringing top donors together with Review Conference host Cambodia, with other influential stakeholders invited for additional perspective and challenge.

2024 Tertulias

We are proud to be supporting the annual bilateral conference between Britain and Spain, Tertulias. Wilton Park is supporting the planning and organising of this year’s event, hosted by the UK in Manchester in July.

Latest videos from Wilton Park

Dr Manu Gupta, co-founder and executive director of Seeds India, discusses the impact of artificial intelligence on the humanitarian sector, and the need for a global governance model to mitigate risks.

Kasia Chmielinski, Advisor on data and AI at UNOCHA, discusses the risks and benefits of using AI in the humanitarian sector.

Recent events

Roadmap towards greater Caribbean cooperation and coordination on Anti-Corruption and Illicit Finance

This month in Miami, we brought together Caribbean Ministers with national security portfolios to collaborate upon agreeing on a roadmap to enhance regional co-operation on curbing corruption and illicit finance.

This work is being undertaken considering the commitments made by Caribbean Heads of Government at the ‘Crime and Violence as a Public Health Issue’ Symposium in April 2023, to “harmonise” legislation and operational processes that assist in the containment of corruption and financial crimes through the creation of a new entity under IMPACS, the Implementing Agency for Crime and Security.

The risks and opportunities of AI on humanitarian action

The Humanitarian community, like any other, is contending with the risks and opportunities of AI and Machine Learning technologies. Faced with record levels of humanitarian need and declining levels of funding, AI offers the promise of greater efficiency and faster delivery.

However, the risks around data protection, lack of capability and the activities of hostile actors make this far from straightforward. In this conference, we heard about cutting-edge humanitarian actions being boosted by AI, at the same time as grappling with the need for collaboration, localisation and evaluation in order to maximise AI’s potential benefits.

Developing renewable energy sources for critical mineral processing

The technology required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions often requires critical minerals. However, much of the processing of those minerals itself produces greenhouse gases, and this increases as demand rises and lower grade ores are mined.

In mid-May Wilton Park hosted an event to discuss ways to reduce the carbon footprint from the processing of critical minerals, with a particular focus on nickel.

It brought together UK Government Departments, key policymakers in a range of nickel-producing countries and other partner governments, industry experts and global purchasers of nickel.

We examined the economic case for transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable or clean fuel sources; heard from countries and industry experts leading the transition; then explored solutions to the remaining technical and policy barriers confronting governments and producers.

A child carries planks of wood over their shoulder, as they walk through the rain

Latest reports

Read our latest reports on women’s economic empowerment, children displaced by climate change and working to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

Read the reports

Looking ahead

Nuclear weapons, and the role of nuclear deterrence in international security, have been thrown into heightened prominence recently. Accordingly, this year will see an increase in our established work on this issue.

The 15th annual conference on extended nuclear deterrence will convene in September, after which we’ll convene two conferences to explore deterrence in regional contexts. The first in the Indo-Pacific region to assess its regional dynamics and a second in Sweden to explore the workings of deterrence in the High North.