Course on Non-proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament held in RACVIAC

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The two-day „Course on Non-proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament“ took place on 18-19 June 2024 in RACVIAC. The Course was organized by RACVIAC – Centre for Security Cooperation, in partnership with the Istituto Affari Internazionali from Italy.

During the Course Opening Welcome Remarks were delivered by H.E. Ambassador Constantin-Mihail Grigorie, Director of RACVIAC and Ettore Greco, Executive Vice President of the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and Head of the Multilateralism and Global Governance programme.

Opening the Course Ambassador Grigorie expressed utmost gratitude to Austria for the provision of financial support and to RACVIAC partners at the Istituto Affari Internazionali for their support, expertise and for identifying excellent subject matter experts who guaranteed that this would be a high quality event.

RACVIAC Director reflected on the fact that this event is a fairly recent one in RACVIAC Programme. It was held for the first time last year and co-organized together with the Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC, UK). The said Course focused mainly on the legal aspects while this year around RACVIAC aim was to offer a more complex understanding of its main topics.

Furthermore, he emphasized that this Course provided a political, legal and a historical perspective on the regulatory framework, strategies and techniques for arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation. It also offered an opportunity to sharpen skills of analysis, presentation and argumentation in negotiating and debating contexts in international security. To this end, a simulation of international negotiations, such as those that take place in international treaty review conferences or to address nuclear proliferation risks were organized during the event.

Disarmament is not only about controlling the creation and distribution of weapons, it is also about creating common understandings, norms and laws to ensure that there are limits to how weapons are used, concluded Ambassador Grigorie adressing the audience.

Vice President of the IAI, Ettore Greco, expressed his appreciation for the „excellent“ cooperation with RACVIAC in organizing the  course on Non-proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament. He  emphasized that IAI, as a member of the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium (EUNPDC), a project created by the EU Council in 2010, is strongly committed to establish cooperation links with institutions like RACVIAC that play a key role in promoting strategic thinking through a variety of training activities.

Greco stressed that the EUNPDC’s core tasks – examining the evolution of the security environment and making constant threat assessments; identifying the related opportunities and challenges for arms control; discussing the new initiatives that can realistically be undertaken to advance the arms control process – are very much in line with the wider EU’s lost-lasting effort to reinforce its strategic thinking capacity and enhancing its role in the security and defence field.

He also noted that the arms control architecture painstakingly built since 1960s is currently in danger due to a number of factors including the heightening tensions between big powers, the ongoing conflicts that have a big escalation potential, and the rapid technological advances. However, several arms control agreeements and cooperation instruments remain in place and negotiations are developing in various institutional frameworks. There is therefore the need on the one hand to preserve and possibly consolidate the existing regimes and agreements, on the other to promote innovate solutions to the emerging challenges.

At the end of the Course, Director of RACVIAC delivered the certificates to more than 30 lecturers and participants from RACVIAC Members, Associate Members, partner organizations and other participants who attended the Course, the aim of which was to strengthen cooperation and mutual understanding between countries.

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