Earlier this month, the Asser Institute hosted the delegation of the United Nations (UN) Disarmament Fellowship Programme. The participants of the programme discussed the implications of emerging technologies for disarmament regimes and the role of the EU export controls.
During the programme, Asser’s academic director Machiko Kanetake gave a seminar on ‘dual-use’ export control, which is one of the legal frameworks primarily for the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Dual-use export control regulates the cross-border transfer of items which can be used for both civil and military (thus ‘dual’) purposes. Kanetake’s seminar focused on the EU’s legal and institutional framework on dual-use export control.
The EU’s export control has been facing multiple challenges. To begin with, while the export control regulation the has direct effect in the EU, its implementation and enforcement at the national level creates divergences. Second, there are fundamental uncertainties regarding to what extent the EU would impose ‘autonomous’ controls without multilateral coordination. Finally, the EU’s export controls have not caught up with technological changes, including AI.
Kanetake explains: ‘For many years, multilateral coordination was one of the key pillars for the EU’s dual-use export control. To what extent the design and implementation of export control can be multilaterally coordinated eventually affects the effectiveness of export controls. Without multilateral coordination, it would be harder to limit alternative access to sensitive technologies.’
The programme was coordinated by EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium and by Mara Zarka (Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation: VCDNP) as part of the consortium. The UN Disarmament Fellows were welcomed by the consortium’s Chair, Sibylle Bauer (Stockholm International Peace Institute: SIPRI), and Asser’s academic director Machiko Kanetake.
The Disarmament Fellowship Programme was created by the UN General Assembly in 1978. The initiative aims to build the capacity of officials from UN Member States to enable them to participate more effectively in international discussions and negotiations on disarmament and non-proliferation issues. The fellows’ visit to the Hague this year created unique opportunities for experts in the Netherlands to interact with fellows from 24 countries.