New Delhi. With increasing global tensions amid arms race and growing mistrust among nations even as the pandemic Covid 19 continues to take a toll of human lives worldwide, it was felt by participants at a conference by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) that “the world has been left with an interesting range of issues to think about.” The theme of the conference was “International Cooperation: navigating the way ahead.”
The conference saw insights from global actors on the shared challenges to international cooperation and way forward and as Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linda said “the theme of this year’s conference couldn’t be more relevant as we are in the midst of a global pandemic that has caused enormous risk to our society in addition to socio-economic and humanitarian consequences of the pandemic. We seek exacerbating tensions and risks and well being of many regions, states and cities.”
According to Ann Sofia Nilson, Ambassador for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “we do find ourselves at a critical juncture. When we talk about nuclear arms control and disarmament, we are witnessing a dangerous global situation. We see a development of new nuclear capability and in parallel we also see the abandonment of or undermining of new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (new START) and Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
As Eleanor Pauwels, Senior Fellow, Global Centre on Cooperative Security said that there is need to “clearly define what we are worried about and it means we have to be concerned with functional goals and design principals prevailing in the development. We also need not only to look at ways to improve our arms control and non-proliferation doctrines.”
On the pandemic and the world, she said “the pandemic is also putting pressure on systems that were previously fragile anyway.”
Speaking at the conference, Jessica Mathews, Distinguished Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said “cyber issues are urgent and fantastically complicated,” while Daniel Hamilton, Distinguished Fellow, Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said “digital revolution is changing the way and how we work and the way nations and states interact.”
He said that the connections that tie our societies together are susceptible to disruption.
On climate change which is one of the major issues facing the world, Jessica Mathews said “climate change is the existential threat and immediate threat that calls for urgent solution and these can only be dealt with international cooperation.”
On the Covid 19 pandemic, she said “this will not by a long shot be the last pandemic we face and there is need in building the international infrastructure to deal with the next one.”
Summing up the discussion, Dan Smith, Director, SIPRI said, “I think we have been left with an interesting range of issues to think about cooperating on wide range of subjects from biosecurity through cyberspace and internet and to US-China trade and of course climate change and resource management. We have been left with an interesting sense of where and how to do the cooperating.”
-The writer is a senior journalist and media consultant
– The writer is a senior journalist and media consultant. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda.
