PONI 2025 Virtual Winter Conference

The Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) will host its 2025 Virtual Winter Conference on February 11. The theme of this conference is “Strengthening U.S. Alliances and Partnerships.”

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The Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) will host its 2025 Virtual Winter Conference on February 11. The theme of this conference is “Strengthening U.S. Alliances and Partnerships,” with presentations related to bolstering the resilience of U.S. alliances and partnerships in the face of challenges posed by two-peer competition, adversarial cooperation, and threats to stability in multiple regions. 

The conference will feature a keynote presentation from NATO Assistant Secretary General Angus Lapsley.

Registration for this event has now closed.

Why Attend? 

The PONI Conference Series is unique in its focus on rising experts and young professionals in the nuclear field. The Conference Series draws emerging thought leaders from across the nuclear enterprise and provides them with a visible platform for sharing their thinking on a range of nuclear issues.  

PONI conferences provide excellent opportunities for rising professionals to present and receive feedback on their research from a diverse group of experts and stakeholders in the nuclear community. Our conferences are also great opportunities to build connections with academics, national lab representatives, military officials, policymakers, and industry representatives across the nuclear enterprise.  

This event is made possible through the generous support of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and U.S. national nuclear laboratories 

Conference Agenda

Opening Remarks
10:00 am
Heather Williams, Director, Project on Nuclear Issues, CSIS

Strategic Vision for NATO and Allied Perspectives
10:15 am
Moderator: Matt Korda, Associate Director, Nuclear Information Project, Federation of American Scientists

Rintaro Inoue, Opportunities and Constraints in Expanding NATO-IP4 Cooperation

Molly Grace Doyle, Assessing NATO’s Nuclear Cohesion: The Impact of Russia’s Aggression on Alliance Discourse, Knowledge, and Deterrence

Hyunseung Yu, Strengthening ROK-NATO Partnership

John William Sutcliffe IV, French Vital Interests in Europe: The Historical Foundations of a Strategic Dialogue

Break
11:30 am

Keynote
12:00 pm
Angus Lapsley, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning

Discussion Moderator: Dr. Heather Williams, Director, Project on Nuclear Issues, CSIS

Break
1:00 pm

Challenges and Opportunities in a Two-Near-Peer Environment
1:30 pm
Moderator: David Minchin Allison, Fellow, Nuclear Security Program, MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale

Vhaire Gudgeon, Perceptions of Ocean Transparency: the Strategic Stability of the UK Nuclear Deterrent

Paul Cormarie, Can the United Kingdom and France Deter China?

Zoey Young, Lips and Teeth: How the U.S., Republic of Korea, and Japan can wedge distance between China and North Korea

Linde Desmaele, US Security Assurances in a Tripolar Nuclear World: Challenges and Way Forward

Break
2:45 pm

Prospects for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation at a Crossroads
3:00 pm
Moderator: April Arnold, Founder, True North Risk

Kai O’Neill Phillips, Strategic Culture and Nuclear Proliferation in South Korea

Brandt K. Mabuni, Allied Latency: Bigger, Better, Faster than Ever

Nour Eid, US-Saudi Relations: From Partners to Allies? The United States’ Opportunity to Avoid Nuclear Proliferation in the Middle East

Claire Williams, U.S. Nuclear Security in Space: Preparing for the End of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty

Closing Remarks
4:15 pm
Heather Williams, Director, Project on Nuclear Issues, CSIS

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