This webinar delves into the multifaceted dimensions of the contemporary nuclear arms race, offering in-depth analyses from three of the world's nuclear powers. Experts will explore the motivations, defense policies, and diplomatic postures of the United States, Russia, and China, providing the audience with a comprehensive understanding of each nation's policies and perspective. The […]
Abstract Eighty years ago, Robert Oppenheimer led an industrial-scale effort with more than 130,000 employees to create the nuclear fission weapons used to end World War II. With the United States and its allies facing totalitarian aggressors in the European and Pacific theaters, many elite scientists, engineers and technicians supported the Manhattan Project through their […]
Colloquium Abstract: Physicists invented nuclear weapons over seventy-five years ago. Today, they still threaten humanity with catastrophe and, recently, this risk has been increasing. The US has over 1,500 deployed nuclear weapons plus thousands more inactive or retired. Current policy calls for maintaining and “modernizing” about 4,000 nuclear warheads and their delivery vehicles, at the cost of […]
Colloquium Abstract The world is in a precarious place right now and nuclear risk is higher than it has been in decades. The war in Ukraine has brought latent fears about nuclear war back to the surface. In recent years, the US has withdrawn from several arms control agreements that constrained US and Russian arsenals, […]
Title: U.S. Missile Defense Programs: A Case Study in the Interaction of Science, Technology, and Public Policy Abstract During the past 70 years, the United States has spent $400 billion on ballistic missile defense, mostly on systems intended to intercept nuclear-armed intercontinental-range missiles that might be launched against the United States. But would these systems […]
Speaker: Dr. Stewart Prager This talk is part of the Twelve Thousand Bombs seminar series. The series on nuclear weapons included four eminent scholars and public figures speaking at ISU. The series, sponsored by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, was inaugurated in 2023 and aims to raise awareness of nuclear weapons issues in […]
Abstract In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the resurgent role of nuclear weapons in national security strategies, the threat that they pose to the public, and potential risk mitigation approaches. Recent events, including the U.S. withdrawal from arms control treaties and the pursuit of new nuclear weapons capabilities in the nine […]
Speaker: Dr. Stewart Prager More information will be available closer to the event.
Abstract China, Russia, and the United States are ramping up their nuclear weapons capabilities in a replay of the Cold War. We survived the nuclear confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union largely by luck. The close calls of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the War Scare of 1983 frightened leaders in […]
Abstract Eighty years ago, Robert Oppenheimer led an industrial-scale effort with more than 130,000 employees to create the nuclear fission weapons used to end World War II. With the United States and its allies facing totalitarian aggressors in the European and Pacific theaters, many elite scientists, engineers and technicians supported the Manhattan Project through their […]
Abstract: This webinar will share expert views on current and emerging crises and opportunities for nuclear threat reduction efforts in the United States, and introduce the near-term nuclear policy advocacy goals of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. REGISTER HERE Topics and Speakers: Moderator – Zia Mian, Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security, and […]
