Lecture Series

The Center for Global Security Research organizes lectures, roundtable discussions and other activities at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other venues. Click on the years, at left, for a listing of current and past CGSR events.

2025

05/15/2025
Mr. Inglis will describe the current state of digital infrastructure in a world increasingly dependent on it.
05/13/2025
Adversary cooperation and opportunism is growing to such an extent between China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran that it is no longer sufficient label China “the pacing threat.”
05/06/2025
Markus Garlauskas will discuss the GUARDIAN TIGER effort on deterring, preparing for and countering limited nuclear attacks in East Asia, with allies and partners.
04/24/2025
Divergent assessments about the nature of China’s strategic relationships and how much military and security cooperation a given relationship will support are largely due to conceptual confusion about how to think about alliances and strategic alignment.
04/21/2025
The United States and its partners face an authoritarian axis that spans the Eurasian landmass.
04/08/2025
Ankit Panda joins CGSR to discuss his new book, ‘The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon’, and the changing landscape of nuclear security and strategy.
04/07/2025
Former NSC China Director Matt Turpin will discuss outlines of U.S. China policy as the rivalry between Beijing and Washington has taken center stage in U.S. policymaking over the past decade.
03/10/2025
How can states use military force to achieve their political aims without triggering a catastrophic nuclear war? How has China coped with this dilemma?
03/06/2025
Post-Cold War homeland missile defense strategy has focused on defending against ballistic missile threats from rogue states.
02/25/2025
This article draws on the stability-instability paradox to compare the prospect for limited war between the United States and China to the U.S.-Soviet rivalry Cold War.
02/10/2025
How does nuclear technology influence international relations? While many books focus on countries armed with nuclear weapons, this volume puts the spotlight on those that have the technology to build nuclear bombs but choose not to.
02/04/2025
How will the war in Ukraine end? Where will U.S.-Russian relations go next? How should we think about Moscow’s role in the so-called “axis” with Tehran, Pyongyang, and Beijing? What comes next in Russia after President Putin leaves the scene? What is the true state of the Russian economy? Is there a hope for nuclear arms control with Moscow in this administration? Given all of the big questions out there at the moment, this is an opportune time to welcome in a renowned expert for an informal, off-the-record conversation on all things Russia. Mr. Matthew Rojansky, President and Chief Executive
01/30/2025
The session will provide fresh insights into strategic competition and superpower dynamics by examining China's strategy, intentions, and decision-making calculus.
01/21/2025
Although the Unites States and its allies may yet dissuade Iran from getting the bomb, policymakers need to consider the kind of force that it might build if it succeeds in crossing the nuclear threshold.
01/14/2025
At the 20th Party Congress in October 2022, Xi Jinping called on the People’s Liberation Army to build a “strong system of strategic deterrence.”
01/08/2025
Whatever “nuclear order” existed through the 20th century has now come nearly undone.

2024

12/16/2024
Information Operations (IO) play a pivotal role in integrated deterrence strategies, serving as a critical enabler in the realm of nuclear deterrence.
11/19/2024
In light of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine since 2022, the Euro-Atlantic security environment has degraded significantly, and escalation risks have increased.
11/14/2024
In light of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine since 2022, the Euro-Atlantic security environment has degraded significantly, and escalation risks have increased.
11/07/2024
The United States faces the unprecedented challenge of simultaneously navigating three escalating factors: a denser international economic landscape, a more fiercely disputed geostrategic environment, and increasing sustainability concerns.
10/07/2024
China's nuclear buildup is not only a response to perceived changes in its external environment but also a result of significant shifts in its internal decision-making dynamics.
10/03/2024
The rapid pace of novel technological change (referred to as ‘emerging technologies’) is challenging our ability to devise policy and governance apace.
09/18/2024
This presentation draws on several years of research into Russian force structure and operational concept development to project where the Russian military may be headed over the next ten years.
09/04/2024
Commercial smallsats are increasingly relevant to US national security.
08/12/2024
Our nuclear world is as dangerous today as it has been for at least a generation.
08/07/2024
The literature on deterrence and how it relates to the space domain has evolved significantly over the past 15 years or so.
07/29/2024
Since the nineteenth century, wargaming has been a component of planning and training in military contexts – and its techniques and concepts have spread to many other arenas.
07/23/2024
Ms. Stewart will share perspectives on the development of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) drone swarm and manned/unmanned teaming.
07/17/2024
This seminar explores the shifting definition and focus of innovation within the United States Department of Defense (DoD).
07/08/2024
Escalation management is one of the key concepts guiding Russia's approach to warfare.
06/17/2024
Russia and Israel are challenging what might be considered proportionate when targeting civilian structures.
06/13/2024
Women increasingly feature in nuclear diplomacy both as participants and subject matter.
05/29/2024
In the last decade, U.S. energy posture has shifted from one of weakness to one of strength.
05/09/2024
Communicating weather patterns risks and opportunities is a weather pattern solution.
05/06/2024
Nuclear threshold status is an oft used concept yet one that has heretofore been poorly defined.
05/02/2024
From a globally renowned expert on Russian military strategy and national security, The Russian Way of Deterrence investigates Russia's approach to coercion (both deterrence and compellence), comparing and contrasting it with the Western conceptualization of this strategy.
04/09/2024
Vladimir Putin's repeated nuclear warnings have brought nuclear deterrence back to the centre of European security debates, thereby prompting the NATO Alliance to reinvigorate its nuclear policy and posture.
04/08/2024
Professor Aaron Bateman will be presenting his forthcoming book, Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative (MIT Press, 2024).
03/27/2024
Author James A. Siebens and colleagues draw lessons about China's use of military and paramilitary forces to coerce its neighbors.
03/25/2024
Future missile threats increasingly stress the sensors used for missile defense.
03/21/2024
Russia is on a roll and Ukraine is retreating while isolationist tendencies in Europe and in the U.S. are rising.
03/18/2024
Dr. Babst will talk about her main messages of her book 'Blind Spots'.
03/11/2024
Aynne argues that exploitative Silicon Valley data governance practices help China build infrastructures for global control.
03/07/2024
The United States and its allies are now in a new era of strategic confrontation, with a rising risk that nuclear weapons will be used by an adversary in conflict.
03/05/2024
Dave Johnson will discuss Russia's long-term military strategy with a retrospective view of its evolution over the past twenty years and an assessment of its possible evolution twenty years into the future.
02/29/2024
Over the past decade, numerous states have declared cyberspace as a new domain of warfare, sought to develop a military cyber strategy and establish a cyber command.
02/22/2024
The United States and its allies are now in a new era of strategic confrontation, with a rising risk that nuclear weapons will be used by an adversary in conflict.
02/15/2024
Beijing's current policies to address perceived threats from the United States date from about 2008-2009.
02/13/2024
In 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping endorsed a new initiative, known as the Global Energy Interconnection (GEI), that could help solve humanity's pressing energy and climate dilemmas through the development of a global power grid.
02/08/2024
No matter how Russia's war against Ukraine ends, it is not going to disappear as a major challenge for the United States in the years ahead.