Watch the video message by Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Alistair Burt MP.

We asked students to share their policy ideas for nuclear disarmament with us. Watch the video to hear their comments.

Nuclear non-proliferation & disarmament in the run up to 2015

Towards Zero FCO event, 7 October 2011

On Friday 7 October selected students from all over the UK took part in a one-day conference at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Jointly organised by UNA-UK and the FCO's Counter Proliferation department, students were first introduced to the subject of the conference – nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation – by UNA-UK's former chair, Lord Hannay and by Robert Hannigan, Director General, Defence and Intelligence, FCO, before watching a recorded video message by Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Alistair Burt MP.

With one of the main purposes of the day being to encourage students to discuss and think about the diplomacy and negotiation involved when furthering the cause of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, participants were briefed on the topical issue of the Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone by the International Institute of Strategic Studies' Mark Fitzpatrick, before debating the issue in groups and formulating ten-point plans for the creation of the zone in practice, and reporting back to the session chairs.

More than a talking shop...

After hearing and discussing the students' ideas for creating a Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, the FCO's Counter Proliferation team will be feeding the students' contributions into governmental policy discussions.

Following the event, the CFO commented "The UNA-UK student event was a great success. I heard some excellent questions posed by the participants to our guest speakers. They also delivered some first-rate plans for progress towards a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction. I hope the students enjoyed the day as much as we did. The students showed a great understanding of the issues involved and highlights that we should engage with students more often and give careful consideration to what they say. After all, they are our next generation of leaders, policy formers and diplomats."

Catherine Kilburn, a student from Edinburgh University commented "…really interesting content; great speakers; good sized groups for the interactive part and, most of all, very inclusive for all to become involved - regardless of level of prior knowledge."

Towards Zero

This event was part of UNA-UK's Towards Zero programme. Click here to find out more about UNA-UK's peace and security work.