The RISK study “Reducing the Risks of Conventional Deterrence: Arms Control in the NATO-Russia Contact Zones” was presented on 16 October 2019 in Brussels by a number of its authors. Various aspects of the study were covered in detail by Ambassador Vladislav Chernov (former head of the Russian delegation to the arms control negotiations in Vienna); Prof. Terrence Hopmann (Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C.); Colonel (ret.) Wolfgang Richter (German Institute for International and Security Affairs, SWP, former head of the Military Section of the Permanent Mission of Germany to the OSCE); Dr. Hans-Joachim Schmidt (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, Germany); Simon Weiss (Friedrich Ebert Foundation Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe), and the coordinator of the report, Dr. Wolfgang Zellner (Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy).
Around 25 participants from EU institutions, NATO and Brussels-based foundations came to the Thon Hotel to hear the controversial discussion, which focused on whether the approach to sub-regional arms control proposed in the RISK report is possible without singling out individual states politically, or whether valid arms control agreements with Russia can indeed be reached at all.