David Atwood

David Atwood has been based in Paris since mid-2016, following more than 20 years in Geneva. While in Geneva, he was for 16.5 years the Representative for Disarmament and Peace at the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO). His work at QUNO involved him in a broad range of disarmament and security related issues. In particular, he worked on small arms and light weapons issues. He did early work on small arms demand questions and was one of the original founders of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). He was also a co-founder of the Geneva Forum, which for many years was a key actor in Geneva in stimulating diplomatic discussions around small arms and related issues. From 2011 to 2015 he served as Senior Advisor to the Small Arms Survey. He continues to do consultancy projects for the Survey, his current principal one being “Understanding Challenges to Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) Universalization and Compliance in the Indo-Pacific region.

Although now officially “retired,” Atwood maintains a keen interest and engagement in arms issues.  His experience especially relates to engagement in the multilateral dimensions of arms control and disarmament processes. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina, where his doctoral dissertation was on “NGOs and the First United Nations Special Session on Disarmament.”