TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA GEORGETOWN University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q), in cooperation with Qatar’s National Committee for Prohibition of Weapons (NCPW), will host a workshop for university students on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) on Thursday.

The workshop will be held under the auspices of the Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Major-General Hamad bin Ali al Attiyah.

The main objective of the event is to create awareness on international conventions pertaining to WMD including nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

In the four interconnected sessions, students of participating universities will be equipped with information about the kinds of WMDs, the role of NCPW as a representative body of the country in the field of global WMD disarmament movement and on existing opportunities for students to work with the NCPW.

SFS-Q Dean Gerd Nonneman said the university was continuously working to engage with a range of state institutions as part of its mandate to exchange ideas and knowledge through collaboration.

“We are delighted to present this opportunity to learn more about WMD and some of the myths surrounding the topic. Developments in the region and the implications in terms of WMD continue to evolve rapidly. Today it is more important than ever to initiate this process of fostering greater understanding of such a complex subject,” said Dean Nonneman.

Though SFS-Q is playing a leading role in organising the event, other institutions, including Qatar Foundation, Qatar University, College of the North Atlantic, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Northwestern University in Qatar and Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, are also contributing to it.

The first session of the workshop will be led by NCPW Chairman Brigadier (Pilot) Nasser bin Mohammed al Ali, who will stress on the significance of the workshop as a model of raising awareness about WMD.

NCPW Vice-chairman Col (Pilot) Hassan Saleh al Nesf will then present a lecture on ‘the objectives and achievement of the NCPW’.

In the following session, heads of the NCPW’s nuclear, chemical and biological working groups Col (Pilot) Hassan Saleh al Nesf, Saif Saeed al Naimi and Dr Nasser al Ansari respectively, will give presentations about international conventions related to the prohibition of WMD and the cooperation of the NCPW with other organisations.

This will lead to a breakout session where students and moderators will split into groups to discuss questions related to the NCPW’s work and the international conventions.

The final session will have NCPW policymakers discuss WMD conventions and their significance to NCPW and Qatar.