The following reflection is from Julia Cordova, a Pace University undergraduate who participated in the POL297L Global Politics of Disarmament and Arms Control class in Fall 2024. Students had the opportunity to engage in civic engagement assignments with disarmament advocacy efforts in the context of the UN General Assembly First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) meetings in New York City.

Before this course, I will admit my knowledge of global issues was very limited. I knew of the major conflicts that were occurring worldwide. But I didn’t have much grasp on the extent of the violence, let alone all the details of how it was occurring. I often found myself overwhelmed by the stream of news in the media and discouraged from doing anything.

However, through this course, I came to understand global issues more deeply.I studied non-proliferation agreements, international treaties, and major organizations dealing with these weapons. It totally changed my outlook.

I must be honest that in the first weeks of the course I felt very concerned about the way nuclear weapons, landmines, cluster munitions, AI, and small arms are currently handled and viewed on an international level. I started to feel the challenge of global disarmament was unconquerable. Many powerful nations appeared resistant to changing their positions, and it seemed like only a handful of people were truly working toward the necessary reforms.

In this course, I came to a better understanding of how the policy process works, an understanding which now sheds a clearer light on the path toward global disarmament. This journey is not one without hope. From our civil engagement experience I came to realize that there are many initiatives aimed at increasing awareness of the dangers of these weapons, and even small steps can lead to major transformative changes. Although the feeling that there is still more work that needs to be done to educate people about the dangers of these weapons persists, this experience has left me hopeful, rather than scared, knowing that there are paths to change and ways in which civil society can participate.

One thing that caught my attention was the increasing focus on young people’s education and participation since, after all, the future of global peace and disarmament depends on what the next generation is going to do. The focus on youth, to me, was one of the most refreshing aspects of our experience and gave me hope that maybe one day the future of diplomacy and international relations will be more accessible to people outside of the traditional diplomatic framework.

It has been a steep learning curve but it has been an immense journey of discovery in which I grew from a state of feeling overwhelmed and unclear about what was happening in the world into one of empowerment through deep knowledge of international politics and disarmament. This has opened my eyes to an entirely new world of global engagement and has instilled in me a desire to learn more about how I can effectively contribute to bringing about change in the world.