Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

The research consortium Verification in a Complex and Unpredictable World: Social, Political and Technical Processes (VeSPoTec) is an interdisciplinary cooperation between the RWTH Aachen University, the Forschungszentrum Jülich, TU Darmstadt and the University of Duisburg-Essen. Associated partners include the University of Vienna and the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP).

In VeSPoTec, a team of sociologists, natural scientists and political scientists is dedicated to investigating the complex interactions between technology, politics and cooperative behavior in the field of nuclear non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament. A particular focus is on the further development of verification procedures, whereby three core topics are addressed: (1) the irreversibility of nuclear disarmament, (2) safeguards under crisis conditions, and (3) the reliability of verification in a multiplex world order.  The aim of the integrated interdisciplinary approach is to theoretically explore the topic area, to work out the most important future verification scenarios and, in close exchange with practitioners, to develop concrete recommendations for (future) action on how confidence-building and trusting relationship can succeed in conflictual contexts. These recommendations will be tested using various interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methodologies, in particular through table-top exercises and simulated inspections.

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INEF is home to a sub-project dedicated to the question of how social and political factors influence the (perceived) trustworthiness of a state and the process of trust building. This includes, for example, mutual (threat) perceptions, political identities and role concepts, perceptions of (in)justice and emotions as well as their influence on the perceived legitimacy of verification regimes.

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Bandarra, L. / Mayhew, N. / Göttsche, M. 2024: The IAEO and Irreversibility: Addressing Political, Institutional, and Technological Verification Challenges in Former Nuclear-Armed States, in: Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 1–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/25751654.2024.2440115

Bandarra, L. / Martuscelli, P. N. 2024: Moving Forward to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons (?): How Regional Issues Shape Global Non-proliferation and Disarmament Politics, in: Peace Review, 36: 2, 179–189. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2024.2347425%5b

Bandarra, L. / Böschen, S. / Dürholt, A. / Geiser, R. / Göttsche, M. / Kretzschmar, S. / Niemeyer, I. / Ostermann, L. / Rademacher, L. / Schäfer, J. 2024: Nuclear Safeguards during Crises: Three Scenarios of Restricted Access to Nuclear Interim Storage Facilities, in: Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42597-024-00126-1

Senn, M. / Wunderlich, C. 2024: The Complexity of Nuclear (Dis)Ordering: A Research Agenda, in: Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 1-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2024.2436152

Dolev, S. / Bandarra, L. 2022: Towards an Achievable WMDFZ Treaty for the Middle East: Insights from Civil Society, in: Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 5: 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/25751654.2022.2092369