Strategic Stability and Management of Catastrophic Risk in a Highly Competitive World seminar

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• Speaker to be confirmed
• Friday 09 May 2025, 14:00-15:30
• Syndics Room, 17 Mill Lane.

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We all realise the risk of global catastrophe is terrifying, but it is the height of irresponsibility to wish away or underestimate the dynamics and objectives of powerful states. Nuclear deterrence is here to stay for the foreseeable future and will continue to reduce the risk of great power war. Nevertheless, we should be exploring how states might better collaborate to nudge the dynamics in a constructive direction so that progress toward nuclear disarmament can resume on the basis of improved relationships. Dr. Christopher Ford will explore aspects of this challenge, in the face of worsening relationships and the ambitions of those states challenging strategic stability. Christopher will draw from his experience in several senior positions within the US government and armed services, in the DC think tank community, as a scholar, and as a Buddhist to explore some of the most challenging dimensions in global management of catastrophic risk.

Speaker:

Christopher Ford Christopher Ford was for three years US Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation in Trump’s first Administration, where he was responsible, among other things, for leading the American shift into technology denial as a tool of competitive strategy and for creating and leading the global initiative Creating the Environment for Nuclear Disarmament (CEND). Before that, Dr. Ford served as Senior Director for WMD and Counterproliferation at the U.S. National Security Council. He is now Professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies at Missouri State University’s School of Defense and Strategic Studies, and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Pharos Foundation at Oxford, as well as a prolific commentator on issues related to deterrence, law, China, and strategic competition.

Panellists:

Paul Ingram Paul Ingram is a Research Affiliate & the former Academic Programme Manager at CSER . Paul has several decades experience leading diverse and multicultural teams to impact decisions on existential threats, particularly nuclear war. He was the Executive Director of the transatlantic British American Security Information Council (BASIC) 2007-19, focusing on nuclear deterrence and disarmament issues in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Since 2019 he has worked closely with the Swedish Foreign Ministry crafting the Stepping Stones Approach. The associated 16-nation Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament has become a widely-acknowledged glimmer of hope for the NPT Review process.

S.M. Amadae Prof S. M. Amadae is Director at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge, and a tenured political scientist at the University of Helsinki, where her research spans nuclear security, climate collective action, and AI’s risks to governance. She is completing a book on “computational tyranny” and is author of Prisoners of Reason and Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy. A former professor at Central European University, Ohio State, and Swansea, and visiting scholar at LSE , New School, and Harvard, she has held a Berggruen Fellowship at Stanford and remains affiliated with MIT . Amadae co-led NATO ’s Dynamic Democratic Support of Finnish Defense Policy poll following Russia’s Ukraine invasion and Finland’s NATO accession, and co-authored SIPRI ’s study on AI, autonomy, and nuclear risk. Since 2021, she has directed Helsinki’s Global Politics and Communication MA, hosting high-profile events with Finland’s former president and EU parliamentarians and securing a US Embassy exchange with UNC Chapel Hill.

This talk is part of the CSER Public Lectures series.

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• CSER Public Lectures
• Syndics Room, 17 Mill Lane

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