Presentation of the Peace Report 2024: Dialogue on international arms control and disarmament in times of war

Global increase in military spending for 2023: Almost twice as high as in 2022

Russia's war against Ukraine is impacting the international defence dynamics. In 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his decision to suspend the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), further weakening the last remaining treaty limiting US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals. SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, estimates the global increase in military spending for 2023 at 6.8 percentage points, almost twice as high as in the previous year.

Security in Europe is perceived differently compared to before the Russian war of aggression. Defence, armament and (nuclear) deterrence become central elements in European security and defence policy. For the first time, the EU will install a Commissioner for Defence for the next legislative cycle to bring to life a Defence Union, overcoming the fragmentation of European defence and ensuring better coordinated defence spending. The cost factor is not insignificant. Military expenditure has considerable opportunity costs and increases competition for government spending on sustainable investments or social expenditure.

A key lesson from the Cold War is that in a geopolitical conflict situation, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation are indispensable elements of a rational security policy in addition to deterrence and defence capability. How can this be achieved? How can new technologies that influence modern warfare be regulated? In which areas can we hope for progress, at least at the working level, despite the international blockade? What role for the EU, what for NATO?

The Peace Report is the joint yearbook of the German Institutes of Peace and Conflict Research (BICC / HSFK / IFSH / INEF). Researchers from various disciplines investigate the realities of conflicts in various countries around the world. Their analyses call for a new concept of European and cooperative security and a strategy for the time after the war in Ukraine.

Programme: 

12:00 Registration and light lunch

12:30 Welcome remarks by:

• Katrin Hatzinger, Director the Brussels Office of the EKD
• Dr. Tobias Mörschel, Director of the FES EU Office

12:40 Panel discussion with: 

• Tim Thies, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy Hamburg 
• Dr. Moritz Deutschmann, Permanent Representation to NATO
• Wendela de Vries, Stop Wapenhandel 

Followed by a discussion with the audience chaired by Sidonie Wetzig, Policy Officer at the FES EU Office

14:00 End

If you are interested in joining the event, please register here. 

Venue address: Office of the EKD (Rue Joseph II 166, 1000 Brussels)

The panel discussion will be held in English. There will be no interpretation.

For more information please contact our Policy Officer for Foreign Affairs, Security & Defence Sidonie Wetzig: sidonie.wetzig(at)fes.de