We are partnering with Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Kings Bay, GA for this year’s PONI Fall Conference. The PONI Conference Series, is unique in its emphasis on featuring rising experts and young professionals in the nuclear field. The Conference Series draws emerging thought leaders from across the nuclear enterprise and policy community and provides them with a visible platform for sharing their new thinking on a range of nuclear issues. The conference will be October 16th & 17th. The first day will feature presentations on a range of nuclear security issues, a reception, and dinner keynote by Vice Admiral Charles Richard. Our second day will include a table top exercise produced and facilitated by the PONI team. The exercise explores the impact of emerging technology on situational awareness and nuclear risk. We have a hotel block at the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Kingsland. If you would like to stay at the same hotel as the PONI team you can contact the hotel for individual reservations at 912-576-1010 or click here. Last day to book a reservation with our room block rate is October 6, 2019. Due to base access all registrants must complete a base access pass that will require processing for base approval. Registering for the conference does not imply approval. After you complete the registration form below, you will be emailed the base access pass that must be completed and returned to complete your registration. You will receive a final confirmation email once you are approved for the base. If you have any questions you can reach out to Simone Williams at [email protected]. All comments made at the conference are off-the-record. REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED 2019 PONI Fall Conference Agenda Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base October 16-17, 2019 Conference Hotel: Conference Location: Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott 950 US James Madison Road 1319 E King Avenue Building 1039 Kingsland, GA, 31548 Kings Bay, GA, 31558 Day One: Wednesday, October 16 8:30 Conference Check-in and Breakfast 9:00 Conference Welcome Rebecca Hersman, Director, Project on Nuclear Issues and Senior Adviser, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies 9:15 Opening Remarks Rear Admiral John Spencer, Director, Nuclear Enterprise Directorate (NE), Defense Threat Reduction Agency 9:45 The Impact of New Technology Panel Moderator: Andrew Reddie, U.C. Berkeley Emerging microfluidics Technology and its Implications for Nuclear Weapons Cyrus Jabbari, Masters Candidate, the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies The Fast-Changing Undersea Domain: Advances in Underwater Drone & Counter Drone Technology Sylvia Mishra, George Mason University Space Threats: The Development and Dissemination of Counterspace Weapons Kaitlyn Johnson, Associate Fellow and Associate Director, Aerospace Security Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies Cybersecurity Risks to Missile Defense in Northeast Asia Garrett Hinck, Research Assistant, Nuclear Policy Program and Cyber Policy Initiative, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 11:15 Break 11:30 Proliferation Concerns Panel Moderator: Rebekah Caruso, Senior Policy Analyst, DOE/NNSA Office of Counterterrorism and Counter Proliferation The Heterogeneous Effect of Global Nonproliferation Policies Cheyenne Tretter, Student, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Assessing the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism: An Actor-Centric and Demand-Focused Framework Vivian Hagerty, Consultant, Valens Global Madeline Dement, Research Fellow, Valens Global U.S.-Czech Missile Defense Cooperation: Alliance Politics in Action Michaela Dodge, Research Scholar, National Institute for Public Policy 1:00 Lunch 3:10 Great Power Competition and Nuclear Risk Panel Moderator: Dr. Rian Bahran, Department of Defense Rare Earth Elements: A National Security Risk Rosemarie Frost, Policy Analyst Associate, SAIC Manipulate, Meddle, Mystify: Current Russian Activities Surrounding the CTBT and What the United States Can Do About It William Heerdt, Research Assistant, Center for Global Security Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Modernizing NATO’s Nuclear Posture to Sustain a Credible and Effective Deterrent Against Russian Aggression Aaron Richards, Policy Analyst, SAIC 4:45 Closing Remarks 5:00 Reception 6:00 Dinner Keynote. 8:00 End of Day One Day Two: Thursday, October 17 8:00 Carnegie Situational Awareness and Strategic Stability Table Top Exercise Facilitated by PONI Team Despite the generally accepted principle that expanded capabilities promote strategic stability, emerging technologies bring new risks that may lead to potentially destabilizing consequences. Given the lack of empirical data to address this dilemma, a series of tabletop-exercises (TTXs) are being conducted by PONI. The TTXs involve both senior and early-career nuclear experts in discussion-based seminars to explore the effects of emerging technologies in two fictional regional scenarios. The first addresses a political crisis in the Taiwan Straits precipitated by Chinese escalation in the region and focused on competition between near-peer adversaries. The second scenario explores a crisis on the Korean Peninsula. In both scenarios, participants will be divided into two teams—a technology team comprised of those with technical expertise within the public and private sector and a policy team comprised of former policymakers and academics. The technology team is tasked with presenting a series of technologies and their tactical uses to policymakers, who are tasked with presenting policy options to the U.S. President. 11:40 Lunch 1:00 Tours 4:30 End of Conference REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED