The deterrent capacity of a state’s nuclear forces depends upon the platforms and delivery systems that constitute the arsenal. Despite the importance of specific platforms for nuclear deterrence and coercion, however, most quantitative research on the effects of nuclear weapons typically evaluate the deterrent power of nuclear weapons by measuring whether a state possesses nuclear weapons or the number of warheads within a state’s nuclear arsenal. In this seminar based on work with co-author Kyungwon Suh, David Arceneaux argues that such measures of nuclear capabilities are inadequate for evaluating the consequences of nuclear proliferation for broader outcomes of deterrence and coercion. He presents a new dataset of nuclear platform diversification that measures the possession of seven nuclear capabilities across all nuclear powers from 1945-2020, including: submarine-launched missiles, strategic land-mobile missiles, rapid fueling technologies, nuclear-tipped cruise miss
Friday, April 30, 2021 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Africa’s growing space program presents new political, economic, and security opportunities and challenges for the United States. The technology transfer process, access to technologies and data, and support for systems development have the potential to increase U.S. political influence vis-à-vis U.S. adversaries; bolster two-way trade and investment; and deepen national security ties between the United States and African partners. Africa’s space industry is projected to grow from $7 billion to over $10 billion in the next five years presenting a significant opportunity for U.S.-Africa trade, which rested at a mere $33 billion in 2020. Furthermore, U.S. engagement in Africa’s space industry has the potential to translate into African support for U.S. positions on data-sharing, safety coordination, and other international space norms.
Dr. Thomas Karako is a senior fellow with the International Security Program and the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he arrived in 2014. His research focuses on national security, missile defense, nuclear deterrence, and public law. For 2010–2011, he was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, working with the professional staff of the House Armed Services Committee and the Strategic Forces Subcommittee on U.S. strategic forces policy, nonproliferation, and NATO.
Karako is also currently an adjunct professor in the Strategic Studies Program in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and a fellow with the Institute for Politics and Strategy of Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University and his B.A. from the University of Dallas.
The New York Times’
Helene Cooper. Through keynote and panel conversations, our speakers will examine President Biden’s efforts to modernize the U.S. military for the conflicts of tomorrow, address its biggest foreign policy challenges including China and Russia, craft a foreign policy for the middle class, and much more.
About Our Speakers:
Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Jake Sullivan is Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Previously, Mr. Sullivan was a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Sullivan also served as National Security Adviser to then-Vice President Joe Biden and Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, as well as Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He was the Senior Policy Adviser on Secretary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 11:00 am - 11:45 am
Please join the Center for Strategic and International Studies for a conversation with General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of the UK Defence Staff. General Sir Nick Carter and Dr. Seth Jones, Senior Vice President and Director of the International Security Program, will discuss the UK Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, and how the UK military is prioritizing modernization.
General Sir Nick Carter assumed the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff in June 2018. Prior to this he was the Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, leading it through the previous Security and Defence Review in 2015. He has had tours of duty in Iraq as a brigade commander in 2003/4 and repeated tours of Afghanistan between 2002 and 2013. He was responsible on his first tour for the initial design of Provincial Reconstruction Teams and the Afghan National Army. He commanded 55,000 NATO troops in Re