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Forum on the Arms Trade Experts

Expert

Ray Acheson

Ray Acheson

Gender
AI/Autonomous and Emerging Weapons
Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)
Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas
Independent Expert
Languages:
English
Contact
Bluesky
Email:
racheson@princeton.edu

Ray Acheson is an independent expert and currently a Visiting Researcher at Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security. Until May 2026, they were the Director of Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament programme of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). They provide analysis, research, and advocacy across a range of disarmament and arms control issues, and bring a feminist, antimilitarist perspective to their work. Among other things, Acheson works to stigmatise war and violence, including by challenging the arms trade, the military-industrial complex, and the use of explosive weapons, and working to prevent the development of new technologies of violence such as autonomous weapons. In all of these efforts, they highlight gendered norms and perspectives and the impact these have on policies related to weapons and war.

They have an Honours BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto and an MA in Politics from The New School for Social Research. They are author of Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy and Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages.

Featured Publications

Gendered Impacts of the Militarisation of Data-Intensive Systems

Reaching Critical Will | June 11, 2026.
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Work in Progress

CCW Report | Volume 14, No. 2
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War on Iran Means Death and Destruction for Civilians and International Law

Reaching Critical Will | March 3, 2026.
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Publications

  • Gendered Impacts of the Militarisation of Data-Intensive Systems
    Reaching Critical Will | June 11, 2026.
  • Work in Progress
    CCW Report | Volume 14, No. 2
  • War on Iran Means Death and Destruction for Civilians and International Law
    Reaching Critical Will | March 3, 2026.
  • Civil Society Training Manual: Gender Perspective in Small Arms Control
    IANSA | February 10, 2026.
  • New World Order
    Same as the Old | February 9, 2026.
  • GGE Informal Consultations Show Cautious Optimism and Remaining Concerns Over Elements for an Instrument on Autonomous Weapons
    CCW Report | January 28, 2026.
  • Carney’s Hot Air at Davos as Cover for Western Barbarism
    CounterPunch | January 23, 2026.
  • The Terror of an Empire in Decline
    CounterPunch | January 18, 2026.
  • US Mission to the UN Takes Aim at Human Rights, Gender, Disarmament, International Law, and Multilateralism
    Reaching Critical Will | January 14, 2026.
  • Civil Society Training Manual: Gender Perspective in Small Arms Control (January 2026) - IANSA
    IANSA | February 10, 2026.
  • Tech Won't Save Us—Only Justice Can
    editorial in "First Committee Monitor | Volume 23, No. 5
  • We Can Build Bunkers for the
    Balance of Terror" or We Can Build Peace Through Disarmament | Volume 23, No. 4
  • We Can Build Bunkers for the
    Balance of Terror" or We Can Build Peace Through Disarmament | Volume 23, No. 4
  • Disrupting the Cadence of Catastrophe
    editorial in "First Committee Monitor | Volume 23, No. 3
  • Time to Turn from Dominance to Disarmament
    editorial in "First Committee Monitor | Volume 23, No. 2
  • Civil Society Demands Action at the UNGA’s Disarmament Committee
    Disarmament Dialogue | October 3, 2025.
  • Turning the Tide from Genocide at UNGA80
    Reaching Critical Will | October 3, 2025.
  • Military Spending, the Sustainable Development Goals, and Financing for Peace
    WILPF | September 22, 2025.
  • First Committee Briefing Book 2025
    Reaching Critical Will | September 19, 2025.
  • WILPF Submission to the UN Secretary-General's Report on Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain
    Reaching Critical Will | April 7, 2025.
  • The Tech-Broligarch Nightmare
    CounterPunch | February 16, 2025.
  • Advancing Disarmament amid Armed Conflict: UNGA First Committee Shows Initiative despite Insecurity
    Disarmament Dialogue blog | November 22, 2024.
  • First Committee Monitor Vol.22 No.5
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 22, No. 5
  • First Committee Monitor Vol.22 No.5
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 22, No. 5
  • First Committee Monitor Vol.22 No.4
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 22, No. 4
  • Gun Violence and the Marketing of Militarism
    CounterPunch | July 28, 2024.
  • Briefing Paper for Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) Delegations Regarding Arms Transfers to Israel
    Reaching Critical Will | May 15, 2024.
  • Briefing Paper for States that have Endorsed the Political Declaration on the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas Regarding Israel’s Use of Explosive Weapons in Gaza
    Reaching Critical Will | 2024
  • In conversation with Ray Acheson: Finding global solidarity against the military industrial complex
    3CR Radical Radio podcast | 2024
  • Cop Cities, Borders, and Bombs: Deadly Connections in the Desert
    CounterPunch | March 17, 2024.
  • Editorial: Red Flags of Automating Violence
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 12, No. 1
  • CCW Report, Volume 11, No. 4
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 11, No. 4
  • Stop Arming Israel: Disrupt the Death Machine
    Counter Punch | November 19, 2023.
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 21, No. 5
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 21, No. 5
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 21, No. 4
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 21, No. 4
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 21, No. 3
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 21, No. 3
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 21, No. 2
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 21, No. 2
  • 159 Recommendations to the UN General Assembly First Committee
    October 2 | October 2, 2023.
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 21, No. 1
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 21, No. 1
  • Solidarity at the UN Requires Justice, Not War
    Reaching Critical Will | September 29, 2023.
  • Editorial: Taking on the War-Builders
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 11, No. 2
  • Abolishing Geopolitics and Building a World Without State Violence
    Metapolis | February 1, 2023.
  • CCW Report, Vol. 10, No. 11
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 10, No. 11
  • Editorial: Working for Peace at the First Committee
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 20, No. 1
  • Despair and determination at the UN General Assembly
    Reaching Critical Will | September 28, 2022.
  • First Committee briefing book 2022
    Reaching Critical Will | September 16, 2022.
  • Editorial: Denial cannot stop the reality of momentum
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 10, No. 9
  • Editorial: Mitigating risk means prohibiting autonomous weapon systems
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 10, No. 8
  • Potential convergence confronts persistent obstinance at the GGE on autonomous weapons
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 10, No. 6
  • Autonomous Weapons and Questions of Ethics, Control, and Accountability
    CCW Report | Volume 10, No. 4
  • Rhetoric vs. reality at the UN Security Council debate on the protection of civilians
    Reaching Critical Will | May 26, 2022.
  • Intersessional meeting on autonomous weapons highlights two paths forward, and the urgency of action
    Reaching Critical Will | April 28, 2022.
  • The political declaration on explosive weapon use must protect civilians, not militaries
    Researching Critical Will | April 14, 2022.
  • CCW Report, Vol. 10, No. 2: We will not weaponize our way out of horror
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 10, No. 2
  • UN General Assembly condemns Russia’s war on Ukraine and calls for peace
    Reaching Critical Will | March 4, 2022.
  • End war, build peace
    WILPF | March 1, 2022.
  • Militarism Cannot Prevent War: An urgent call for de-escalation, demilitarisation, and disarmament in relation to Ukraine and beyond
    WILPF | February 14, 2022.
  • UN Security Council debates war in cities and the protection of civilians
    Reaching Critical Will | January 28, 2022.
  • Environmental Peacebuilding through Degrowth, Demilitarization, and Feminism: Rethinking environmental peacebuilding to stay within planetary boundaries and champion social justice
    Ecosystem for Peace - Medium | January 19, 2022.
  • CCW Report, Vol. 9 No. 9
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 9, No. 9
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 19, No. 5
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 19, No. 5
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 19, No. 4
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 19, No. 4
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 19, No. 3
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 19, No. 3
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 19, No. 2
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 19, No. 2
  • CCW Report, Volume 9, No. 7
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 9, No. 7
  • First Committee Monitor: Volume 19, No. 1
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 19, No. 1
  • Hope and hubris at the UN General Assembly
    Reaching Critical Will | September 30, 2021.
  • CCW Report, Volume 9, No. 6
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 9, No. 6
  • CCW Report Vol. 9, No. 5
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 9, No. 5
  • CCW Report Vol 9 Issue 4
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 9, No. 4
  • CCW Report Vol 9 Issue 3
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 9, No. 3
  • WILPF Against Autonomous Weapons
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 9, No. 2
  • CCW Report
    Reaching Critical Will | July 13, 2021.
  • Report on the March 2021 consultations on a political declaration on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas
    Reaching Critical Will | March 12, 2021.
  • First Committee Briefing Book 2021
    Reaching Critical Will | September 2021
  • CCW Report, Vol. 9 No. 10-13
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 9, No. 10-13
  • Abolition
    Women's International League for Peace & Freedom | 2020
  • Youth and Disarmament Education
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 18, No. 2
  • The twists and turns of UN cyber diplomacy
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 18, No. 1
  • Autonomous Weapons and Gender-Based Violence
    Reaching Critical Will | 2020
  • Autonomous Weapons and Patriarchy
    Reaching Critical Will | 2020
  • Locked out during lockdown: an analysis of UN system during COVID-19
    Reaching Critical Will | September 28, 2020.
  • CCW Report, Volume 8, No. 1
    Reaching Critical Will | Volume 8, No. 1
  • Demobilising war
    Women's League for International Peace and Freedom | August 25, 2020.