Australia, like all nations, has an over-riding national interest in the development and enforcement of robust international regimes that restrict the creation, deployment and export of weapons of mass destruction.

For decades, Australia has been a strong, dedicated contributor to the evolution of control regimes like the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the chemical and biological weapons conventions and the 2014 Arms Trade Treaty, and has a proud record in the field of disarmament.

Yet, as Peter Varghese argues in this paper, however strong our record has been in the past, we’re going to have to get even better at our diplomacy and our strategy around arms control and disarmament in the future.

This paper is based on the 2015 John Gee Memorial Lecture.