Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

Elena Sokova

Executive Director

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• Fissile materials security and control
• International organizations and regimes in non-proliferation and disarmament
• Nuclear non-proliferation issues in Eurasia
• Nuclear non-proliferation and international safeguards
• Non-proliferation and disarmament education and training

Angela Kane

Senior Fellow

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• Peace operations and disarmament
• Political relations and negotiations

• Multilateralism

Dr Nikolai Sokov

Senior Fellow

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Dr Nikolai Sokov was born in Moscow. He graduated from the Department of History of Moscow State University in 1981 and subsequently worked at the Institute of US and Canadian Studies (1981-86) and Institute of World Economy and International Relations (1985-87), both USSR Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences in 1986.

In 1987-92, Dr Sokov worked at the Ministry of Foreign Relations of USSR/Russian Federation. He participated in START I, START II and other arms control negotiations as well as numerous summit and ministerial meetings.

In 1992-96 he was graduate student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and was awarded a PhD in Political Science in 1996.

Dr Sokov joined the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in 1996, where he has worked since. In 2011-14 and since 2019 he works at the VCDNP.

He has published widely, including two dozen books and monographs as well as more than 200 articles. He is regularly invited to speak at various conferences and other public events and has consulted many international organizations (including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization) as well as US governmental agencies (i.e. Departments of State, Defense, and Energy) and various committees of the US Congress.

He taught full-semester at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and short courses at Tomsk State University (Russia) and Odessa National University (Ukraine).

• Arms control, disarmament and international security
• Theory and practice of international regimes
• Comparative foreign and defence policy and military strategies
• Nuclear non-proliferation: The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
• Safeguards
• International cooperation for non-proliferation
• Great power relations: US-Russia-China
• Alliance relations
• NATO

• Nexus between domestic and foreign policy

John Carlson

Non-Resident Senior Fellow

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John Carlson joined the VCDNP as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow in July 2019. He holds a number of other appointments including: Member and Senior Associate Fellow, Asia-Pacific Leadership Network on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament; Member, International Advisory Council, International Luxembourg Forum; and Member, International Verification Consultants Network, VERTIC.

Mr. Carlson worked in the Australian Public Service from 1963 to 2010, principally on energy, nuclear and international relations issues, including 21 years as Director General of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office (1989-2010). Concurrent appointments included: Chairman, IAEA Standing Advisory Group on Safeguards Implementation (SAGSI), 2001-06; Alternate Governor for Australia, IAEA Board of Governors; Australian Sherpa, Nuclear Security Summit, 2010; founding Chair, Asia-Pacific Safeguards Network.

Mr. Carlson is a Fellow of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) and holds the national award of Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

• Nuclear non-proliferation, disarmament and arms control
• Safeguards and Verification
• Nuclear governance
• Nuclear security

Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova

Director, International Organisations & Non-Proliferation Program

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• Multilateral non-proliferation regimes
• International non-proliferation and disarmament negotiations and the role of coalitions
• Nuclear politics of the Non-Aligned Movement
• Nuclear-Weapon-free zones

• Iran’s nuclear program and proliferation theory

Ingrid Kirsten

Senior Research Associate

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Before joining the VCDNP, Ms. Kirsten spent 20 years as a diplomat for the Republic of South Africa, including a posting at the South African Embassy and Permanent Mission in Austria. She has also worked as researcher at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and managed stakeholder relations for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS). Her current focus is the nexus between technical cooperation in nuclear energy and nuclear security, as well as the role of the IAEA.

• International relations in agriculture and food security
• Peaceful uses of nuclear energy and nuclear technology

• Nuclear and conventional arms control

Laura Rockwood

Senior Fellow

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Laura Rockwood re-joined the VCDNP in August 2022 as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow. Ms. Rockwood has over 35 years of experience in non-proliferation and international safeguards and has published extensively on safeguards and non-proliferation.

She retired from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in November 2013 as the Section Head for Non-Proliferation and Policy Making in the Office of Legal Affairs after 28 years of service. During her employment with the IAEA, she was the senior legal advisor on all aspects of the negotiation, interpretation, and implementation of IAEA safeguards, and was the principal author of the document that became the Model Additional Protocol. She participated in high-level negotiations on Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, and in the IAEA/US/Russian Federation negotiations on the Trilateral Initiative and the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement.

Prior to her current position at the VCDNP, Ms. Rockwood served as the Executive Director of the Open Nuclear Network, a programme of One Earth Future, and as the VCDNP’s Executive Director between 2015 and 2019.

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation
• IAEA Safeguards
• The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
• Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones

Dr. Sarah Case Lackner

Senior Fellow

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Dr. Case Lackner joined the VCDNP as a Senior Fellow in September 2023. She was previously a Senior Nuclear Security Officer in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Division of Nuclear Security, where she served as the Scientific Secretary for the Nuclear Security Guidance Committee and the Director General’s Advisory Committee on Nuclear Security. She was also Co-Scientific Secretary of the 2022 Conference of Parties to the A/CPPNM.

Prior to arriving at the IAEA, Dr. Case Lackner served in the US Department of State as a Physical Scientist in the Office of Nuclear Energy, Safety, and Security, advising primarily on international nuclear security matters, and in the Office of China and Mongolian Affairs. She previously served as Senior Programme Officer on the US National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Nuclear and Radiation Studies, organising panels, meetings, and publications related to nuclear security.

Dr. Case Lackner received her PhD in Physics from the University of Chicago in 2007. Previously, she completed a BA in Physics with honours at Columbia University.

• Security of nuclear and radiological materials and facilities globally against malicious non-State actors
• Emerging and disruptive technologies and their effect on nuclear energy production, safety, security and nonproliferation
• The role of parliamentarians and other non-expert policymakers in nuclear safety, security and nonproliferation
  Role of international organisations and multilateral negotiations in nuclear security
  Interfaces between nuclear safety and nuclear security

Federica Dall’Arche

Senior Research Associate

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Federica Dall’Arche is a a former policy advisor to the Italian Presidency of The Council of Ministers (Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri).

She graduated summa cum laude in political science at the University of Roma Tre and won a full merit scholarship for an exchange programme at the Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Federica obtained her Master’s degree in Non-proliferation and Terrorism Studies and a Certificate in Conflict Resolution at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), California. In 2014, she won the Michiel Brandt Memorial Prize for best MIIS paper on Human Trafficking and conducted an internship at the Asian-Pacific Center for Security Studies, a U.S. Department of Defense academic institute. She was later the recipient of the United Nations Security Council Monitor Fellowship at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and of the Non-proliferation and Nuclear Security Fellowship at the Pacific Forum – Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

During her career she has also worked at the International Affairs Institute (Istituto Affari Internazionali, IAI), at Deloitte UK, at the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies (CNS), at the William Tell Coleman Library, and as a freelance collaborator for the online magazine Geopolitica.info.

• Arms control and the non-proliferation regime;
• Disarmament;
• Gender in international security;
• The European Union and international organisations in arms control and non-proliferation.

Anthony (Tony) Stott

Senior Research Associate

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Anthony (Tony) Stott is an international expert on nuclear power infrastructure development, environmental protection and stakeholder engagement. He provides consulting services to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), international NGOs and universities.

Between December 2014 and March 2020, Mr. Stott was employed by the IAEA in the Nuclear Infrastructure Development Section, Division of Nuclear Power. He was Team Leader for Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) missions to several countries embarking on new nuclear power programmes, led national workshops and expert missions on environmental impact assessment and stakeholder engagement, lectured at interregional training courses on nuclear infrastructure development topics, and was Scientific Secretary for technical meetings and the Technical Working Group on Nuclear Power Infrastructure.

Prior to joining the IAEA, Mr. Stott accumulated more than 30 years’ experience in the nuclear industry in South Africa, in the national electricity utility, Eskom. In his last position at Eskom, Senior Manager in the Office of the Group Executive, Mr. Stott acted as an advisor to executive management on nuclear power, a member of the South African delegation on climate change multilateral negotiations and to the IAEA General Conference. He was also an adviser to the Minister of Energy during international negotiations and a nuclear spokesperson for Eskom for many years until he joined the IAEA.

• Nuclear power infrastructure development
• Peaceful uses of nuclear energy and technology

Noah Mayhew

Senior Research Associate

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• IAEA safeguards, nuclear verification and broader issues of nuclear governance

• US-Russian relations, broadly and in the spheres of non-proliferation and arms control

• The history of North Korea’s nuclear programme and prospects for its mitigation

Mara Zarka

Research Associate and Project Manager

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Ms. Zarka is responsible for the management and coordination of the VCDNP’s projects under the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium.

Prior to joining the VCDNP, Ms. Zarka completed an internship at the International Peace Institute, Vienna Office, where she assisted in organizing the 43^rd annual IPI Vienna Seminar focusing on the dangerous nexus between crime, conflict and terrorism. She also gained experience interning at the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization at the United Nations in Vienna and working on local political campaigns in the United States.

Ms. Zarka is fluent in English and German, proficient in Spanish and has basic knowledge of French. She holds a Master of Advanced International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna and a BA in International Relations and Psychology from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, USA.

• Emerging and disruptive technologies;
• Security of nuclear and radiological materials against malicious non-State actors;
• nuclear non-proliferation and governance

Louis Reitmann

Research Fellow

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Louis Reitmann joined the VCDNP as a Research Associate in March 2022. His work has been published in Arms Control Today, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), the European Leadership Network, and in WorldECR, the leading journal on export controls and sanctions.

Mr. Reitmann serves on the Field Building Advisory Committee of Ploughshares Fund. He has served on the board of the Emerging Voices Network, an initiative of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC). He was selected as one of 25 Leaders for Tomorrow by the UN programme #Youth4Disarmament.

Previously, Mr. Reitmann served as an Export Control Support Officer at Imperial College London. There, he helped to boost compliance with export control and investment security regulations and create structures to protect research from misuse for weapons of mass destruction and military purposes. Prior to this, he supported the EU Special Envoy for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation as a Blue Book Trainee at the European External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels.

At the EEAS, Mr. Reitmann contributed to a large-scale EU mine action project, the design of a database on arms exports, and an upgrade to EU communication around disarmament and non-proliferation. Between 2019 and 2021, he worked as an economic and financial crime analyst in the City of London. He has also completed internships with the US Mission to International Organizations in Vienna, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Some of his previous work has been published by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Global Risks, and British Pugwash. Mr. Reitmann has been selected as one of 25 Leaders for Tomorrow by the UN initiative #Youth4Disarmament. He is also a member of the CTBTO Youth Group.

Mr. Reitmann is fluent in German and is learning French. He holds an MSc International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a BA Political Science from the University of Vienna.

• Outer space security
• Multilateral diplomacy on nuclear disarmament
• The norm against the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons