Programme on Responsibilities and Global Governance
The Responsibilities and Global Governance Programme works to strengthen global security by supporting the development of responsible governance frameworks for weapons and dual-use technologies in cross-cutting operational domains. Through third-party facilitated dialogues and independent research, the programme shapes international norms, rules, and law to cultivate and advance multilateral governance across inter-state relations and the global commons, in ways that enhance security for all.
The programme creates inclusive spaces for state officials, civil society, academics, technical experts, and industry to collaboratively shape governance standards that reflect the evolving security and technological environment. Our approach draws on nearly a decade of ongoing facilitation of nuclear responsibilities dialogues, where the programme has developed rigorous methodologies for mediating sensitive discussions among high-level and politically-divergent stakeholders.
The programme’s work spans four interlinked areas: nuclear weapons, emerging and disruptive technologies, outer space, and the maritime environment, with particular current focus on developments in and affecting South Asia.
Meet the Team:
Dr Chiara Cervasio: Programme Manager
Mhairi McClafferty: Policy Fellow
Eva-Nour Repussard: Policy Fellow
Alice Spilman: Policy Fellow
Ching Wei Sooi: Policy Intern
Professor Nicholas J. Wheeler: Non-Resident Senior Fellow at BASIC, Professor of International Relations at the University of Birmingham
Responsibilities Quarterly:
Responsibilities Quarterly is a quarterly newsletter which provides news and updates on the work and activities of the Responsibilities and Global Governance Programme. Subscribe here.
Analysis and Publications for this Programme
Read our work on the responsibilities of states around nuclear weapons below
Escalation and Restraint: Revisiting the May 2025 Conflict
In the latest series of articles reflecting on the anniversary of the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis, Shaza Arif explores how the crisis highlights the dangerous stability-instability paradox in South Asia, where nuclear deterrence prevents full scale war but simultaneously enables recurring limited conventional clashes, escalating the risks of miscalculation, arms races, and uncontrolled escalation under the nuclear shadow.
Report: Addressing Future Nuclear Crisis Scenarios in South Asia through a Responsibility-Based Approach
This report is a product of two Track 2/1.5 dialogues involving two crisis simulations that were facilitated by BASIC’s Responsibilities and Global Governance Programme with participants from Indian and Pakistani nuclear policy communities in Bahrain in February 2026.
Reimagining the Perils of Brinkmanship in South Asia
In the latest series of articles reflecting on the anniversary of the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis, Syed Ali Zia Jaffery examines how misperceptions, weak crisis-management mechanisms, emerging technologies, and geographical proximity could make future India-Pakistan crises dangerously prone to nuclear brinkmanship.
Working Paper: Strengthening Dialogue in the Non-Proliferation Treaty: the Nuclear Responsibilities Approach
The Centre for Policy, Conflict and Co-operation (CPCCR) at the University of Stirling and BASIC have submitted a working paper, authored by Dr Megan Dee, “Strengthening dialogue in the Non-Proliferation Treaty: the nuclear responsibilities approach”, to the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
NukeChat Episode 6: How to Talk Nuclear Responsibilities in a Third Nuclear Age
In the final NukeChat episode, Dr Megan Dee and Dr David Chambers discuss the different framings and approaches that can be used – and avoided – by States when talking nuclear responsibilities in an NPT framework, as well as the merits of using a nuclear responsibilities approach to strengthen dialogue and contribute to transparency, confidence-building, and risk reduction efforts.
NukeChat Episode 5: Nuclear Responsibilities and Nuclear Energy
In this episode, Dr Megan Dee and Ingrid Kirsten explore the responsibilities associated with the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, reflecting on how responsibilities are attributed – and upheld – to ensure that nuclear materials and technologies not only remain safe and secure but accessible to those most in need.
NukeChat Episode 4: Nuclear Responsibilities and Non-Proliferation
In this episode, Dr Megan Dee and Dr Toby Dalton explore nuclear responsibilities as they relate to nuclear non-proliferation, along with the challenges this third nuclear age presents for the non-proliferation regime at large.
Report: Unpacking the May 2025 India-Pakistan Crisis: Mutual Perceptions, Nuclear Escalation Risks, and De-escalation Pathways
In this report, Mhairi McClafferty explores the central role of perceptions in shaping both escalation and de-escalation during the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis.
NukeChat Episode 3: Nuclear Responsibilities and Disarmament
In this episode, Dr Megan Dee and Maria Antonieta Jaquez consider nuclear responsibilities and the topic of nuclear disarmament, looking at the different perspectives surrounding this debate, including as it relates to the disarmament principles of irreversibility, transparency, and verification.
NukeChat Episode 2: Nuclear Responsibilities Through The Nuclear Ages
In this episode, Dr Megan Dee and Dr Ben Zala consider how nuclear responsibilities have evolved over the first and second nuclear ages and reflect on how they have also been questioned, critiqued, and potentially undermined in this new nuclear age.
NukeChat Episode 1: Nuclear Responsibilities and Why They Matter
What are nuclear responsibilities and why do they matter? In this opening episode, Dr Megan Dee and Dr Alice Spilman introduce nuclear responsibilities as a prevalent theme and loaded term within contemporary global nuclear politics and diplomacy.
Q&A: Nuclear Responsibilities Programme Renames to the Responsibilities and Global Governance Programme
BASIC’s Nuclear Responsibility Programme has renamed. In this Q&A, Programme Manager Dr Chiara Cervasio answers key questions as to what this means for the programme’s work.
Active Programmes
BASIC believes in making progress on nuclear disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation through multiple complementary approaches. We continuously develop our programmes – streams of research – through sustained engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, collectively searching for the art of the possible.
Our current programmes are listed below. View the current programmes page by clicking here.
