Issue No. 19 | Monday, August 24, 2026
Good morning,
Welcome to The Science Diplomat Playbook, your Monday morning guide to what’s shaping the week ahead in global science diplomacy.
The lead
Governments gather in Geneva on Monday for the 12th Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty, opening a week of negotiations that will look beyond the mechanics of regulating international weapons transfers toward a more fundamental question: how should countries measure whether the treaty is actually achieving its purpose?
More than a decade after the ATT entered into force, nations that are party to the treaty are developing a five-year strategy intended to establish priorities, indicators and ways of tracking progress. But the process is also exposing gaps in the architecture used to evaluate the treaty itself. The draft strategy is scheduled for formal discussion on Thursday.
Unlike several other international conventional-arms agreements, the ATT has no dedicated periodic review conference. Its annual meetings examine implementation through working groups on treaty implementation, transparency and reporting, and universalization, but consultations convened by the U.N. Institute for Disarmament Research and Panama found that important aspects of implementation are not being systematically assessed.
Among them is the treaty’s ability to respond to technological change. The ATT requires its member nations to review developments in conventional arms, yet no mechanism currently does so systematically. Researchers point to changes involving weapons components, technology transfers and knowledge shared through joint and licensed production as areas where gaps in national regulation could emerge.
One proposal would use countries’ existing reports as the basis for voluntary peer reviews aimed at identifying gaps, assistance needs and best practices.
The question takes on added significance this week as researchers begin an initiative intended to produce the first comprehensive evaluation of the ATT’s impact on national transfer controls, efforts to prevent weapons diversion and international cooperation.
The conference week also brings the release of the ATT Monitor’s 2026 assessment of treaty implementation, including analysis of national reporting and how governments assess risks involving explosive weapons in populated areas.
The broader question is whether an international regime designed to make the global arms trade more responsible has the institutional machinery to determine whether it is succeeding—and to adapt as weapons and the arms trade change.
Major processes to watch
Arms Trade Treaty — CSP12 looks toward the treaty’s next five years
Member nations meet through Friday, with attention turning from the opening general debate to diversion, transparency, international assistance and the proposed five-year strategy. The question to watch is whether countries begin building more systematic ways to measure the treaty’s performance or leave those questions to future meetings.
Mongolia — COP17 moves from local demands to high-level negotiations
The U.N. desertification summit enters its final week after mayors and regional leaders adopted the Ulaanbaatar Declaration, calling for a stronger role for local governments in global land policy. The declaration is due to feed into the conference’s high-level discussions.
Attention now moves to ministers. Monday’s high-level segment includes a dialogue on innovative financing for healthy land and drought resilience, while Wednesday brings a ministerial dialogue on restoring rangelands and supporting pastoral communities.
That creates a useful second-week question for the Playbook: whether demands for more local authority, better measurement and greater access to finance make their way into the decisions governments take before COP17 closes on Friday.
Geneva — Experts update the rules for dangerous goods on Europe’s waterways
Government and technical experts meet at the Palais des Nations to review the international rules governing the transport of dangerous goods on inland waterways.
The ADN Safety Committee will consider implementation and interpretation of the agreement, special authorizations and derogations, expert training, classification societies and amendments to its technical regulations.
It is the quieter side of science diplomacy: governments converting technical expertise on safety, materials and transportation into common rules that allow hazardous cargo to cross national borders.
Security Council watch — Food security returns to the peace and security agenda
The Security Council holds a high-level debate on Tuesday on the role of conflict in driving global and local food crises, bringing food security back into discussions of international peace and security.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the World Food Program are expected to brief as Council members examine how warfare disrupts food production, supply chains and humanitarian access, and what role the Council can play in reducing those effects.
The debate comes during a week in which the Council will also address the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in Sudan and developments in the Middle East, Syria and Lebanon. Members are separately expected to continue discussing a draft resolution on the impact of digital technologies on violations against children in armed conflict.
Signals
Measuring a treaty’s effectiveness requires different tools from monitoring whether countries comply with its rules.
International arms-control regimes face a recurring problem when technology changes what can be transferred faster than governments update what they regulate.
Cities and regions are challenging the national-government bottleneck in land-restoration finance by seeking more direct access to funding.
Cross-border safety rules depend on continual technical revision, from how dangerous goods are classified to when governments permit exemptions.
On the calendar
Aug. 24–28 — Arms Trade Treaty CSP12 (Geneva)
Member nations review implementation of the treaty and consider a proposed five-year strategy, alongside new work evaluating its overall impact. → Program
Aug. 24–28 — ADN Safety Committee, 48th session (Geneva)
Experts review and update international regulations governing dangerous goods transported on inland waterways. → Agenda
Aug. 17–28 — UNCCD COP17 (Ulaanbaatar)
The desertification summit enters its high-level and concluding week, with ministers addressing land finance, drought resilience, rangelands and pastoral communities. → Program
Aug. 10–Oct. 2 — IPCC Working Group I First Order Draft expert review (Global)
Experts continue reviewing the first draft of the physical-science contribution to the IPCC Seventh Assessment Report. → Review information
Closing
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