20. The Stepping Stones Approach to Nuclear Disarmament Diplomacy

This chapter sets out the Stepping Stones Approach, developed by the author in 2019, a guideline to be enacted during contested global diplomatic efforts to respond to extreme global risk. More specifically, it is an approach to break the deadlock in nuclear disarmament diplomacy. The approach calls for greater collaboration, and through dialogue and the iterative development of proposals, diplomacy can head towards more adaptable and exploratory engagements. By involving taking early practical steps, incremental action is achieved, resulting eventually in significant change. This approach has the versatility to be adapted for other fields of catastrophic risk, making it an important tool when managing global risk.