Just a visit to the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, would have been enough to wow Eli Horton, who completed his MA in Nonproliferation and Terrorism at the Institute in spring 2024.
But Horton wasn’t there to tour the original home of the League of Nations or enjoy the alpine views. He was there to facilitate—and navigate—global nuclear-arms negotiations.
Horton made the trek as part of a six-month internship for the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, which was made possible by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies through its International Organizations Internship Program.
But as striking as the sublime architecture of the Palais might be, critical security discussions quickly demanded full attention.
Horton was one of many Middlebury alumni there to join 2024’s Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee, or “PrepCom” for short.
The NPT is a landmark international treaty that represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon states. With 191 signatories, it entered into force in 1970 and was extended indefinitely in 1995.
Horton doesn’t want to imagine a world without the treaty.
“It would mean no consensus, sharper divisions among states, a building up of arsenals, a new arms race,” he says.
PrepCom was created to set the agenda for the treaty negotiations, which happen every five years. The objectives are 1) preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and related technology, 2) promoting cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and 3) furthering the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament.
The gathering lasts 10 days and includes upwards of 100 nations, all aiming to agree on as many nonproliferation points as possible, while sharing updates on peaceful applications of nuclear science and technology.
Horton started working for the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs in New York before he graduated from Middlebury.
In Geneva, he was joined on facilitation duties, which include taking exhaustive notes and constantly updating participating nations on the proceedings, by fellow nonproliferation and terrorism alum Gabiden Laumulin ’13, who is now the first secretary of the Department of International Security of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
If that sounds like a prominent Middlebury Institute presence, it is.
The thread connecting this diverse network? Professor Dr. William Potter, who has made it his life’s mission to retire nuclear threats through cooperation. That drive inspired him to take his knowledge as a trained Soviet specialist and nuclear nonproliferation scholar—dating back to before the collapse of the USSR—to found the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), based at the Middlebury Institute.
“Our mission at the center is to train the next generation of nonproliferation experts at home and abroad,” he said.
Potter notes that major benefits emerge from the familiarity forged in the program at the Middlebury Institute. He mentions the respect he shares with China’s lead proliferation specialist, who took Potter’s NPT simulation course, which focuses on multilateral negotiations surrounding the implementation of the NPT, with special attention on nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
“We have the kind of relationship that enables us to speak frankly. We may not agree, but we can find compromise,” Potter says. “Today those kinds of relationships don’t exist. There is not enough empathy, respect, or trust.”
For Horton, participating in a conference like PrepCom has long been an ambition, a hope, and a dream, and one he understood Middlebury would help him realize.
“The Center [for Nonproliferation Studies] struck me by how hands-on the training is, and how accessible [its] wide variety of students and professionals can be,” he says. “Having that experience at a young age and having access to the experts and an opportunity like this, and being able to be involved in real-world solutions, that’s one of the biggest things Middlebury has given me.”
More at nonproliferation.org and ungeneva.org.
Master of Arts in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies
James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
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