From 8 to 11 July 2019 the GCSP organized an executive education course on “Building Capacities on Arms Control for the MENA Region”. It attracted some 13 participants, mostly diplomats from North Africa and the Middle East (Algeria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, United Arab Emirates) as well as experts from Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

This year the main focus of the course was the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its 2020 Review Conference as well as the project of a WMD-free zone in the Middle East. The participants attended lectures by international experts on those topics as well as the geopolitical situation in the region, the Iran Nuclear Deal, the role of the IAEA, the relationship between the NPT and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), the prohibition of fissile material for nuclear weapons, the SESAME Project, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). They took part in exercises, including a simulated negotiation. This course is part of a project supported by the Swiss Government.