PONI 2018 Winter Conference

This event is the third conference in the 2018-2019 PONI Conference Series. The conference will feature presentations from emerging nuclear experts covering topics such as nuclear policy and strategies, arms control and proliferation challenges, and deterrence.

The PONI Conference Series, now in its fifteenth year, 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.

All comments made at the conference are off the record.

Full Agenda*

*Please note this is not a final and some items are subject to change

8:45     Conference Check-in
 
9:15     Conference Welcome
Rebecca Hersman, Director, Project on Nuclear Issues and Senior Adviser, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
 
9:30     Panel 1: The Future of Arms Control
Panel Moderator:
Alexadra Bell, Senior Policy Director, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
           
Governing Insecurity: The Institutional Design and Verification of Arms Control Agreements
Andrew Reddie, University of California, Berkeley
           
Preparing for the Unthinkable in East Asia: Evaluating Cross-National Public Opinion on the U.S. Nuclear Umbrella
David M. Allison, PhD candidate, Yale University and Stephen Herzog, PhD candidate, Yale University
 
Impacts of Nuclear "Ban Treaty"
Kayla Matteucci, Junior Fellow in Nuclear Policy, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Europe and the INF Treaty: Between a Hard Place and a Rock
Maxwell Downman, Nuclear Policy Analyst, British American Security Information Council
 
11:30   Lunch

12:30 Undeclared North Korea: The Role of Open Source Analysis in Identifying and Verifying North Korean Missile and Nuclear Facilities
Panel Moderator: 
Rebecca Hersman, Director, Project on Nuclear Issues and Senior Adviser, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Panelists:
Dr. Sue Mi Terry, Senior Fellow, Korea Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies 
Michael Elleman, Senior Fellow for Missile Defence, International Institute for Strategic Studies
 
1:45   Panel 2: Tête-À-Tête, Russia and the U.S.
Panel Moderator:
Olga Oliker, Senior Adviser and Director, Russia and Eurasia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
 
Understanding Russia’s Perception of (Weak) US Resolve in Nuclear Crises: The role of conventional standoffs and cross-domain deterrence 
Dumitru Minzarari, PhD candidate, University of Michigan
 
Potential Areas for Renewed U.S.-Russian Collaboration to Advance Technical Nuclear Forensics
Marie Kirkegaard, PhD candidate, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory
 
Russian Perspectives on the U.S. Withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and their Implications for Future Arms Control Agreements
Jacob Stebbing, David M. Kennedy Scholar, Brigham Young University
 
Impact of the Russian-Chinese Nuclear Deterrence Relations on the United States
Nikita Perfilyev, PhD candidate, University of Vienna
 
3:30   Break
 
3:45     Panel 3: Nuclear Issues and other Challenges
Panel Moderator:
Amy Woolf, Specialist in Nuclear Weapons Policy, Congressional Research Service
 
Strengthening Nonproliferation through Combatting Proliferation Finance: Challenges and Policy Recommendations
Andrea Viski, Director, Strategic Trade Research Institute
 
NATO and NSNWs Strategic Reappraisal, Operational Reassessment
Elmar Hellendoorn, Harvard University
 
Nuclear Superiority in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Yashar Parsie, Intern, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation
 
5:15     End of Presentations/ Reception

Please contact Simone Williams at swilliams@csis.org with any questions. 

This event is made possible by support from Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Department of Defense, and Air Force Global Strike Command.