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Policy reports

Biosecurity Risk Assessment in the Life Sciences: Towards a Toolkit for Individual Practitioners

This paper outlines ways to motivate practitioners to proactively take responsibility for considering and managing the biorisks associated with their work, aiming to close the knowledge gap by equipping scientists with appropriate tools to implement a comprehensive biorisk mitigation strategy at the practical level.

Compliance with International Humanitarian Law in the Development and Use of Autonomous Weapon Systems: What does IHL Permit, Prohibit and Require?

It is undisputed that the development and use of autonomous weapon systems (AWS) must comply with international humanitarian law (IHL). However, how IHL rules should be interpreted and applied in the context of AWS remains, in some respects, unclear or disputed. With a particular focus on human–machine interaction, this report aims to facilitate a deeper understanding of this issue.

Nuclear Security in Ukraine and the Black Sea Region: New Threats, New Risks, New Consequences

Nuclear security threats in the Black Sea region went through momentous changes between the 1990s and 2023. Up to 2014 the region was known as the location for the most high-profile cases of nuclear smuggling. In 2014 Ukraine lost control of parts of its territory and borders, which exacerbated the same nuclear security challenges. Attacks on nuclear installations were still seen as unlikely.

Nuclear Security During Armed Conflict: Lessons From Ukraine

The attacks on nuclear installations in Ukraine by the Russian military in 2022 were unprecedented. Nuclear security aims at prevention, detection and response to malicious or unauthorized acts by non-state actors, not the armed forces of a state. However, an international armed conflict creates new circumstances in which a national nuclear security regime must operate. 

Food Insecurity in Africa: Drivers and Solutions

This paper explores how climate change, violent conflict, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis combine to drive rapidly increasing levels of food insecurity. These drivers play out differently across and within regions and countries, and this paper focuses on how a combination of the drivers plays out on the African continent. It looks at four subregions—North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and Central and Southern Africa—and several countries within these regions.

Financing Food Security: Promises and Pitfalls of the Humanitarian–Development–Peace Nexus in South Sudan

This study explores the potential for donor governments and institutions to support the operationalization of the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding (HDP) nexus to respond to the food insecurity crisis in South Sudan and the challenges it presents. South Sudan faces one of the worst hunger crises in the world. Violent conflict, climate shocks and widespread economic crisis have left 70 per cent of the population severely food insecure.

Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons in Sub-Saharan Africa: Using UN Reports on Arms Embargoes to Identify Sources, Challenges and Policy Measures

This SIPRI Policy Report synthesizes the data on small arms and light weapons (SALW) diversion from the United Nations Panel of Experts reports on the five UN arms embargoes in place in sub-Saharan Africa in 2022—on the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan (Darfur region).

Conflict, Governance and Organized Crime: Complex Challenges for UN Stabilization Operations

This SIPRI Report examines how organized crime is intertwined with armed conflict and hybrid governance systems in three states that currently host United Nations stabilization missions. It surveys the conflict/crime/governance nexus in the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Mali, and how UN stabilization missions, in particular the UN Police, have engaged with the challenge of organized crime.

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