On 29 September 2021, the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) in cooperation with the United States Mission to International Organizations in Geneva organised a joint public discussion on “Women and Diversity in Arms Control and International Security” with a keynote speech by Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, Under Secretary of Arms Control and International Security Affairs, U.S. Department of State.

In her keynote speech, Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins highlighted the necessity to place women and diversity at the core of decision-making bodies in arms control and international security affairs. This imperative, she stressed, responds not only “to the importance of our values, as a guiding principle”, but also to that of “shared hard security interests”, when considering the “direct correlation between equality and empowerment of women and a nation’s stability”. Accordingly, Ambassador Jenkins warned, barriers that stand upon women’s meaningful participation “negatively impacts both US national security and that of our partners and allies”. Her Excellency concluded her keynote speech by emphasising the progress of the last two decades, as well as the challenge of making diversity work.