On the occasion of the meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), GCSP and the Academic Peace Orchestra Middle East, together with the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation-New York Office, organised an international panel on the topic: “Towards a WMD-free Zone in the Middle East: Introducing Novel initiatives” at the UN Headquarters on 8 May 2019.

Apart from the moderators Marc Finaud and Bernd W. Kubbig, the speakers included: Nataliya Artemenkova (PIR Center); Kelsey Davenport (Arms Control Association); Tytti Erästö (SIPRI); Mark Fitzpatrick (IISS) and Edward M. Ifft (Hoover Institution). They addressed the current stalemate of the project of a zone free of WMD in the Middle East and the potential as well as the pitfalls of the recent novel initiatives put forward to break this deadlock: the Russian proposal for an approach combining disarmament and regional security; a conference outside the NPT framework and within the UN General Assembly; a special role for the three Depositaries of the NPT (Russia, UK, US); the precedent of the ‘Four Horsemen’ for a nuclear-weapons free world; a series of partial measures (such as a nuclear test-free zone, a chemical weapon-free zone, regional application of the constraints from the JCPOA, regional limits on ballistic missiles, etc.); and finally a leadership initiative by the Egyptian President to convince Israel to participate in the process.

This event was a follow-up to previous meetings and publications jointly launched by GCSP and the Academic Peace Orchestra Middle East.