‘No-first-use’ is a policy that can be adopted by a nuclear armed (or allied) state to never initiate a nuclear exchange by being the first to use nuclear weapons. China and India have declared such policies. The Soviet Union/Russia had such a policy from 1982 to 1993. There are political developments promoting the adoption of no-first-use policies by others – particularly the United States and its allies under extended nuclear deterrence, i.e. NATO/Japan/South Korea and Australia.  

This webinar will explore whether such policies reduce the risk of a nuclear war and pave the way for multilateral nuclear disarmament, how such policies can be operationalised, what new initiatives are advancing such policies, and political forces and security arguments supporting or preventing their adoption.

Chair: Marc Finaud, (France/Switzerland), Head of Arms Proliferation at Geneva Centre for Security Policy

Speakers:

• Mr Thomas Countryman (USA), Chair of the Arms Control Association Board of Directors, Former United States Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-proliferation
• Mr Andrey Baklitskiy (Russia), Senior Research Fellow, Center for Advanced American Studies, Institute of International Studies, MGIMO University of the Russian Foreign Ministry
• General Bernard Norlain (France), Former Air Defence Commander and Air Combat Commander of the French Air Force. Vice-President of Initiatives pour le Désarmement Nucléaire
• Lord Hannay of Chiswick (UK), Chair, All Party Group on Global Security and Non-proliferation
• Commander Robert Forsyth (UK), Former Nuclear Submarine Commanding Officer, Royal Navy
• Ms Uta Zapf (Germany/NATO/OSCE), Former Chair of the Bundestag Subcommittee on Disarmament and Arms Control
• Ms Yasmeen Silva (USA), Partnerships Manager, Beyond the Bomb.

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Please note that another session of this webinar is organised by our partner for the Asia/Pacifique region.

Time: Prague 7:30am, Islamabad 10:30am, Delhi 11am, Beijing 1:30pm, Seoul/Tokyo 2:30pm, Sydney 3:30pm: Registration for the Asia/Pacifique region session

Chair: Alyn Ware (New Zealand). Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

Speakers:

• Hon Gareth Evans (Australia), Chair of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament; Former Australian Foreign Minister
• Professor Manpreet Sethi (India) who is Distinguished Fellow and head of the Nuclear Security Project at the Centre for Air Power Studies
• Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy (Pakistan). Former Chair and professor, Department of physics at Quaid e Azam University. Member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters
• Dr Tong Zhao (China). Senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace located at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing
• Mr Nobuyasu Abe (Japan), Senior Adviser for the Council on Strategic Risks, Former UN Under-
  Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs;
• Vanda Proskova (Czech Republic), Vice-Chair of PragueVision institute for Sustainable Security.