View Event code of conductAbstract: In this lunchtime seminar, Lucy Stewart (DSC) and Angela Woodward (VERTIC) will discuss key highlights of Aotearoa New Zealand’s disarmament history and the values that have guided New Zealand’s foreign policy through recent times. They will canvas some of the challenges to this stance that can be observed today such as a tense global security environment with great power competition on the rise, recent attempts to undermine the international disarmament regime, and New Zealand’s pending AUKUS Pillar 2 membership. Finally, they will invite discussion on these issues with the audience. All welcome.
Lucy Stewart is the Programme Manager of the Disarmament and Security Centre, a not-for-profit organisation based in Ōtautahi, Christchurch that focuses on disarmament education and public outreach about disarmament issues. Lucy holds a Masters Degree in Human Rights and International Relations from the University of Auckland. She lived in Iraqi Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) for three years (2010-2013) which gave her first-hand experience of a post conflict society and set her on the path of disarmament as a lifelong interest and as a career. She has been working in the disarmament field for 10 years, in a range of not-for-profit organisations. Lucy was on the NZ Civil Society Delegation to the United Nations for the negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017. She was the recipient of the Loxley Peace and Service Award in 2018 for her contribution to disarmament work in New Zealand.
Angela Woodward is the Deputy Executive Director of VERTIC, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation based in London that specialises in the verification of disarmament and non-proliferation agreements. She researches and publishes on methods to strengthen states’ compliance with international obligations concerning non-proliferation and disarmament, specialising in biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
In addition to her VERTIC work, she is a Board member of the Disarmament and Security Centre, and of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (APLN). She has taught public international and international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand Angela holds an LLM in Public International Law (Merit) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA (Honours) in Political Science and an LLB from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
