A Discussion with Ward Wilson

The Proliferation Prevention Program invites you to:

A Discussion with Ward Wilson, author of
Inescapable, Unanswerable Contradictions: Five Fundamental Challenges to Nuclear Weapons Orthodoxy

In his forthcoming book, Ward Wilson questions commonly-held assumptions relating to nuclear weapons.  Do nuclear weapons possess a unique ability to “shock and awe” opponents?  Do nuclear weapons force us to rely on deterrence?  Is extended deterrence unquestionably effective?  Are nuclear weapons inherently desirable?

The Proliferation Prevention Program is pleased to provide an opportunity for Wilson to share his work on these important questions.  Sharon Squassoni, Director of the Proliferation Prevention Program, will moderate the program.  We hope you will be able to join us for what promises to be a stimulating discussion.

Ward Wilson is a Senior Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies.  In 2010 he co-authored a study commissioned by the Swiss Foreign Ministry titled “Delegitimizing Nuclear Weapons: Examining the Validity of Nuclear Deterrence.”  He has recently spoken at the House of Commons in Great Britain, the United Nations, the Naval War College, the Norwegian Defense Studies Institute, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, universities in the United States (e.g., Princeton, Stanford, University of Chicago, Georgetown), the Aberystwyth University in Wales, the University of Hamburg, and others.  Wilson won the Doreen and Jim McElvany Nonproliferation Essay Challenge in 2008 for the “most outstanding essay on nonproliferation.”  He has been published in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Dissent, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, Nonproliferation Review and International Security (among others).

Please RSVP to Tamara Spitzer-Hobeika at tspitzer-hobeika@csis.org or 202.775.3239.