The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 - 2 p.m. (E.T.)
Nuclear weapons are playing a major role in shaping the Russian war against Ukraine and its accompanying humanitarian tragedy. Russia has used its nuclear weapons as a shield for its conventional aggression. With the US-led NATO nuclear-armed alliance increasingly active in supporting Ukraine, there is the risk of intentional or inadvertent use of nuclear weapons and possible escalation to a larger nuclear war with even more catastrophic humanitarian consequences. Beyond the immediate risks are the longer term implications of this conflict for the global nuclear order. This informal off-the record discussion will explore the possible political and policy challenges of the conflict for the multilateral nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation regime, in particular the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which is due to hold its 50-year Review Conference in August 2022, and the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which will have its first Meeting of States Parties in June 2022.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Ambassador Alexander Kmentt has been a career diplomat in the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs since in 1994. He has served as Ambassador and Director of the Department for Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation at the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as Deputy Permanent Representative of Austria to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, as Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary in the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty Organization, and as Austrian Permanent Representative to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union. He is President-designate of the First Meeting of States Parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.