The third event in the 2015-2016 PONI Conference Series will be held December 9-10 at CSIS in Washington, DC.
The two-day conference will feature presentations from emerging nuclear experts covering topics including U.S. nuclear policy and posture in the face of modernization and sequestration, non-state actors, nuclear security, escalation dyanmics, and perspectives on Russia and Europe. The conference will also include a keynote address by Tom Countryman, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Department of State, and feature a panel discussion on the health of the nuclear enterprise.
Agenda and Participants
Panel 1: U.S. Nuclear Policy and Posture in the Face of Modernization and Sequestration
Nuclear Weapons Modernization: Thinking about the Unthinkable
Michaela Dodge, Senior Policy Analyst, Defense and Strategic Policy, The Heritage Foundation
America’s Strategic Nuclear Force Structure in the 21st Century: Operational and Deterrence Impacts of Re-Phasing Current Modernization Plans
Marc Quint, Post Master’s Research Associate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Balancing Deterrence
Katherine Blakeley, Policy Analyst, National Security and International Policy, Center for American Progress
Dime Store Deterrence: Getting What You Pay For
Evan Thompson, Research Associate, Octant Associates, LLC
Panel 2: Non-State Actors
Rethinking the Proliferation Paradigm
Sarah Laderman, MS/MPP Candidate, University of California, Berkeley, and Fellow, Nuclear Science and Security Consortium
The Wild Wild East: Nuclear Trafficking and the ‘Lawless Land’ of Eastern Europe and the Russian Caucasus
Ross Hagan, Master’s Candidate in Applied Intelligence, Mercyhurst University
Apocalypse Now? Rethinking Nuclear Terror in the Age of ISIS
Minsu Crowder-Han, Graduate Student, Georgetown University
Panel 3: Escalation Dynamics
Managing Escalation in Conventional Conflicts with Nuclear-Armed Adversaries
Vincent Manzo, Policy Analyst, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy, Department of Defense
Early Warning? Forecasting Escalation Patterns in South Asian Nuclear Crises
Hannah Haegeland, Scoville Peace Fellow, Stimson Center
Miscalculation Scare: Why ASBM and CPGS Weapons Will Not Increase Nuclear Escalation Risk
Kang Jiang, PhD Candidate, King’s College
Panel 4: Perspectives on Europe and Russia
Making the Case for Preserving the INF Treaty- A European Perspective
Anna Peczeli, Research Fellow, Center for Strategic and Defense Studies
Whither Goes the Transatlantic Security Partnership?
Selim Sazak, Researcher, Foreign Policy Program, The Century Foundation
Lauren Sukin, Student, Political Science, Brown University
Emerging Security Alliances Challenging the Status Quo and U.S. Foreign Policy Towards Russia
Sofie Roehrig, Student, International Relations, George Washington University
Russian Perspective on Strategic Non-Nuclear Deterrence
Harrison Menke, Wargaming Analyst, SAIC
Panel 5: Nuclear Security
Role of New Scientific Approaches in Tamper Detection for Nuclear Security
Tessa Pinon, Postdoctoral Scholar, Pennsylvania State University
Nuclear Monitoring in the Post-Cold War Era: Technology to Support Unilateral Actions
Heather Meeks, Program Manager, Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Portal Monitoring Systems for Nuclear Threat Reduction- Looking Inside the Box
Dr. Jonathan Burns, Threat Reduction Physicist, Atomic Weapons Establishment
Exporting Nuclear Safety
Captain Jeffrey Graham, Deputy Lead Project Officer, Nuclear Use Control, Defense Threat Reduction Agency