PONI 2019 Winter 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 open with a keynote by Rose Gottemoeller, Former Deputy Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Ms. Gottemoeller served as Deputy Secretary General of NATO from October 2016 to October 2019; where she was the first woman in NATO's seventy-year history to hold the post. Prior to her position at NATO, she served as the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the U.S. Department of State.  

The Hon. Ellen Lord, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment will join us for our lunch keynote.

Under Secretary Lord is responsible for all matters pertaining to acquisition; developmental testing; contract administration; logistics and material readiness; installations and environment; operational energy; chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons; the acquisition workforce; and the defense industrial base.
   

All comments made at the conference are off-the-record and not for attribution.

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Conference Agenda*

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

8:30 am Conference Check- In

9:00 am Conference Welcome

Rebecca Hersman, Director, Project on Nuclear Issues and Senior Adviser, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Stuides

9:10 am Opening Keynote

Rose Gottemoeller, Former Deputy Secretary General of NATO

10:00 am Panel 1: Brave New World - Emerging Technologies and Strategic Goals

Moderator: Sarah Gonzalez, International Affairs Analyst, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) Office of International Affairs, IA-61 U.S. Department of Energy

Artificial Intelligence and Strategic Stability: Implications for Nuclear Security, Deterrence, and Escalation in Future Warfare
Dr. James Johnson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Crisis Stability
Marshall Foster, Cadet, United States Air Force Academy

Applying Lessons Learned from Nuclear Material Management to Dual-Use Emerging Technologies
Matthew Keskula, Master's Candidate, The University of Maryland, College Park
Lindsay Rand, PhD Student, University of Maryland School of Public Policy

Hypersonic Weapons: Tactical Uses and Strategic Goals
Alan Cummings, Master's Candidate, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

11:40 am Lunch

12:00 pm Keynote

Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Honorable Ellen Lord, Department of Defense

1:20 pm Panel 2: Seeing is Believing - The Role of Perception on Security Concerns

Moderator: Paige Gasser, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

A Case for Understanding Public Nuclear Knowledge
Jamie Kwong, PhD Candidate, King's College London

Threats to Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons: Myth or Reality
Dr. Tahir Azad, Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester

OSINT Ethics: Application in the Nuclear Landscape
Catherine Haslam, PhD Candidate and Researcher, Centre for Science and Security Studies, King's College London

An Analysis of Algerian Missile Arsenals: What OSINT Can Tell Us About Missile Proliferation in the Middle East
Agnieszka Krotzer, Research Intern, The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

3:00 pm Break

3:15 pm Panel 3: Deterrence Theory - Ensuring a Credible Deterrent

Moderator: Rachel Webb, Management Analyst, Headquarters Air Force, Directorate for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration

India and Pakistan's Offensive Nuclear Relationship
Seap Bhardwaj, Undergraduate Student, The University of Wisconsin-Madison; Intern, The Office of Congressman Bryan Steil (WI-01)

Fourth Generation Nuclear Weapons; Challenges to Arms Control and Deterrence Paradigms
MAJ Lorin D. Veigas, Nuclear Operations and Counterproliferation Officer, Air Force Institute of Technology

The Opportunity for Conventional Deterrence Against Limited Nuclear Aggression in the 21st Century 
Dominic Law, MSci International Relations Graduate, The University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

Securing Economic Ties: Assessing the Extended Nuclear Deterrent
Sooyeon Kang, Pre-doctoral Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard Kennedy School; PhD Candidate, Josef Korbel School of International Studies at University of Denver

5:00 pm Closing Remarks

5:15 pm Reception

6:30pm Conference End
 

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

This event is made possible by support from Defense Threat Reduction Agency, National Nuclear Security Administration, and Northrop Grumman.