Real action needs to be taken on nuclear disarmament, which has become an "empty slogan," said George Perkovish, the keynote speaker at a research symposium titled "Deconstructing Nuclear Weapons."
AU students were able to engage in a discussion with several of the area's experts on the future of nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament. The event featured eight established speakers who represented many different fields. It was sponsored by Swords and Ploughshares, a graduate student journal of international affairs. The six-hour event took place Tuesday.
Perkovich's questions included how to "calculate at what pace each state's weapons could be dismantled," "who would verify such dismantlement," and whether the world is willing to spend the "many hundreds of billions of dollars" required.
Perkovich also pointed out the problems of where the dismantled materials would be kept, whether civilian nuclear energy research could continue and the problems that would develop the closer the world got to zero nuclear weapons, noting that in this case, anyone with the last remaining weapons would become a super power.
Jon Wolfsthal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies detailed both the history and future of nuclear weapons in North Korea, as well as U.S. involvement there. Realistically, the U.S. will only be able to limit the size of the North Korean nuclear arsenal, rather than eliminating it completely, he said.
Col. Charles Lutes of the National Defense University described the role of the military in the future of nuclear proliferation. He said the strategies of the military are changing to adapt to "a diversity of threats," considering that "most of them have to do with weapons of mass destruction."
Lutes identified several strategic challenges for the military, which included the challenge of terrorists seeking weapons of mass destruction, "instability in a WMD-armed state," "onward nuclear proliferation" and "WMD black markets." Lutes also concluded that the next U.S. conflict would most likely include a WMD component.
Sarath Ganji, a freshman in the School of International Service, said he found the event interesting.
"In D.C. you get a unique perspective" since these people have firsthand experience in the topics presented, he said. Considering the issue of nuclear disarmament, Ganji said this generation will have to have a more global perspective and international focus.
Matthew Nuzzo, a second year graduate student in SIS and the editor of Swords and Ploughshares, said the event was set up to promote "new lines of scholarship and research" in not only SIS, but the surrounding community.
In designing the event, Nuzzo hoped it would encourage students to submit articles on nuclear proliferation to Swords and Ploughshares and hoped it would provoke thought within the greater AU community.
Eight weapons experts discuss world nuke situation
A variety of speakers were featured at a research symposium called "Deconstructing Nuclear Weapons" on Tuesday, where the AU community engaged in discussions about the future of nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament.
Featured presenters:
-"The Reliable Replacement Warhead Program and the Future of the U.S. Nuclear Stockpile," presented by Dr. Robert Nelson of the Union of Concerned Scientists
-"Rogue States and Nuclear Proliferation," presented by Dr. Hugh Gusterson of George Mason University
-"Reporting on the Current U.S. Nuclear Weapons Program: How it Affects the World," presented by Walter Pincus of The Washington Post
-"Nuclear Weapons and Ideas of Development and Progress: The Story of Pakistan," presented by Dr. Zia Mian of Princeton University
-"International Law and Nuclear Weapons," presented by Dr. John Burroughs of the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy
-"Current Developments in North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program," presented by Jon Wolfsthal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies
-"The Pentagon and Counterproliferation," presented by Col. Charles Lutes of the National Defense University
-"If We Took Nuclear Disarmament Seriously, Then What?," presented by Dr. George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
