Highlights

From February 10-13, 2026, a training course on implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) no 1540 was held at the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics, Palasamudram, Andhra Pradesh, India. This was the second course organized by the Government of India in coordination with the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) […]

The fifth report of the Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concludes that there is sufficient basis to believe that the Syrian Air Force was responsible for the chemical weapons attack on October 1st, 2016, in Kafr Zeita, Syrian Arab Republic. A comprehensive investigation was conducted by the Investigation and […]

CRISPR-Cas9 is an advanced gene-editing technology developed in 2012 by scientists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier. It is a natural defense system found in bacteria and archaea, helping them resist viral attacks by “memorizing” viral DNA segments and integrating them into the bacterial genome. This system then uses this information to identify and destroy viral […]

For decades, gain-of-function (GoF) research was a quiet, technical term within virology referring to the modification of organisms to better understand biological processes. In recent years, however, the phrase has exploded into global consciousness, sparking controversy, political division and scientific introspection. At the forefront of this conversation is Professor Simon Wain-Hobson, emeritus professor of Virology […]

Paris, 20 June 2025 – A new FATF report, Complex Proliferation Financing and Sanctions Evasion Schemes, published today, reveals that significant vulnerabilities remain across the global financial system in countering the financing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Despite the grave threat posed by proliferation financing (PF), only 16% of countries assessed by the FATF and its […]

At the start of 2025, nine states – the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel – together possessed approximately 12 241 nuclear weapons, of which 9614 were considered to be potentiallyoperationally available. An estimated 3912 of these warheads were deployed with […]

In the current context of global security facing increasingly non-traditional challenges, from international terrorism to threats posed by advanced biotechnology, preventing the proliferation of biological weapons has become one of the top priorities for the international community. Notably, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the potential dangers of biological agents, which can cause severe consequences […]

The nuclear non-proliferation regime that has underpinned international security for more than half a century is on the line. The dramatic events in Iran have become even more serious with last night’s bombardments and the potential widening of the conflict. We have a window of opportunity to return to dialogue and diplomacy. If that window […]

One hundred years ago, in the aftermath of World War I, the international community came together to effectively ban the use of poison gas on the battlefield. The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (“the Protocol”), signed on 17 June 1925, was a response […]