Better know a nuke: The United States of America

What successes and failures of arms control have shaped the US nuclear strategy over time? In the first episode of season 4 of the Arms Control Poseur podcast, host Dr Alexander Bollfrass welcomes experts Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, Amy Woolf and Dr Rebecca Gibbons to explore the Cold War Arms race, deterrence strategies and what the future might hold for US nuclear policy. Together, they discuss the impact of historical arms control treaties, US-Russia treaty compliance as well as growing challenges posed by emerging threats.

Dr Alexander Bollfrass is Head of Strategy, Technology and Arms Control of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, focusing on preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction and related delivery systems, as well as risk reduction and arms control. 

Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins is an American diplomat who served as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security in the Biden Administration. During the Obama administration, she was the US Department of State's coordinator for threat reduction programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. 

Amy Woolf is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is also a former Specialist in Nuclear Weapons Policy at the Library of Congress. 

Dr Rebecca Davis Gibbons is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Maine. She previously served as a Fellow and Associate of the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs after receiving her PhD from Georgetown University in 2016.  

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‘The Arms Control Primer’ is a podcast series produced by the IISS Strategy, Technology and Arms Control Programme on behalf of the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium

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