The goal of “general and complete disarmament” has been deliberated in the international community for eight decades. It has been on the agenda of the UN General Assembly for almost 50 years and remains the “ultimate goal” of multilateral disarmament efforts. It appears in a dozen multilateral disarmament-related treaties and even some bilateral strategic nuclear agreements. Yet the goal is not widely understood and is often dismissed as utopian. Meanwhile, with war spreading across the Middle East, and continued threat of nuclear armament by some of these nations, it is difficult to see how, if at all, the world will be able to achieve a productive global dialog on the issue that will result in actual disarmament!

Randy Rydell is Senior Political Affairs Officer in the Office of Mr. Sergio Duarte, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs at the United Nations. He served from January 2005 to June 2006 as Senior Counselor and Report Director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (Blix Commission) and Senior Fellow at the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C. He Joined the UN secretariat in 1998, where he has served as an advisor to Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapal and his successors. He has also served as Secretary of the Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament matters (2001) and as a Visiting Lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.

Download | Duration: 01:43:15