THE Conference on Disarmament, the world’s sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, has failed to produce any tangible solution for arms control or decommissioning of lethal weapons since the dawn of the twenty-first century. Rapid shifts in global politics and the growing influence of the cult of the offensive in States’ strategic decision-making have further constrained the Conference on Disarmament’s (CD) performance in 2026. Nevertheless, delegates in the CD are striving to reach a consensus on multilateral arms limitation and disarmament agreements to create global legal norms, even amid deep political disagreements.

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) is a successor to the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament. Today, it has 65 members. The CD meets in an annual session at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The session is divided into three parts of 10, 7 and 7 weeks, respectively. The first week begins in the penultimate week of January. The 2026 CD session structure and schedule: Part I began on January 19 and ended on March 27; Part II began on May 11 and ended on June 26; Part III began on July 27 and will end on September 11.

The CD is presided over by its members on a rotating basis, in English alphabetical order. Each President presides for four weeks. Mongolia, Morocco, the........

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