2026 Speakers

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has provided technical input to the long process that led to the negotiation and signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). This talk will provide an overview of that history as well as insight based on personal engagement into some of the significant events. Discussion will include the Congressionally mandated moratorium on nuclear testing (the Hatfield-Exon-Mitchel amendment to the 1993 Energy and Water Appropriation), the formation of the Science Based Stockpile Stewardship Program (SBSS), the “Confidence Conference” held in June 1995

Abstract: Over the past 75 years, U.S. extended nuclear deterrence has been central to alliance security in Europe and Asia. That system now faces mounting strain as multiple adversaries expand and modernize their nuclear forces and as U.S. strategic priorities shift, raising serious questions about the credibility and effectiveness of U.S. guarantees. This lecture will trace the evolution of U.S. strategic thought on extended deterrence and assesses four broad options for the future: reducing commitments, expanding guarantees, maintaining the status quo, or sharing deterrence responsibilities

Abstract: Changes in adversary nuclear forces have always been a key driver of U.S. force structure decisions. Thus, it is no surprise that in response to China’s nuclear expansion, questions about nuclear sufficiency are back at the forefront of the debate. While there is growing consensus in the strategic community that the current modernization program is insufficient, there is no agreement on the necessary size and composition of U.S. nuclear forces for adversarial multipolarity. But before we engage in these “numbers discussions,” we must first revisit the force sizing metrics that have

Abstract: We are entering a new age. That new age is dominated by two major powers – the United States and China – and a rising number of countries able to protect and assert themselves as well as influence, even shape the course of international events. That new age is thus increasingly multipolar and different from the bipolar age of the Cold War, which was ruled by the United States and the Soviet Union, and the unipolar age of the post-Cold War, which had Washington at the helm. Its key feature is strategic autonomy. That new age has far-reaching implications for the United States, and

Abstract: In an era of great power competition and a worsening security environment, the nuclear ban treaty might appear to be at risk of irrelevance. Yet ignoring the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) would come with risks to extended nuclear deterrence and the nuclear order for the United States and its allies and partners. This volume offers an original and in-depth examination of the theories, politics, and debates involved in the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons conferences and negotiation of the TPNW. There are numerous histories of the TPNW, however they have