Welcome to “Nukes & New Tech”, a bonus episode of “Ok, Doomer!”, the podcast series by The European Leadership Network’s (ELN) New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) network. Hosted by the ELN’s Policy and Impact Director, Jane Kinninmont and Project and Communications Coordinator, Edan Simpson.
In today’s special bonus episode, Jane and Edan are taking a deep dive into an ELN project exploring the emerging risks posed by the intersection between new technologies and nuclear weapons.
In “What’s the Problem?” Jane is joined by Belen Bianco, a former Policy Fellow at the European Leadership Network and current UN Official. Belen provides a welcome introduction to the ELN’s nuclear weapons and new technologies project. Belen also explains why the ELN decided to analyse the aggregate effects of new technologies on nuclear decision-making, as opposed to exploring the technologies in isolation, and outlines the potential future threat landscape in this field.
The episode then turns to Edan’s “How To Fix It” panel, featuring Rishi Paul, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Leadership Network, Héloïse Fayet, Younger Generation Leaders Network (YGLN) member and Research Fellow at the Security Studies Centre of IFRI (French institute of international relations), and Kim Westerich-Fellner, NEVER member and Mercator Fellow on International Relations and Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
The panel discusses the ELN’s Guardrails and Self-Assessment (GSA) Framework for Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (EDTs), which was designed to raise awareness and familiarise stakeholders at various levels with the complex interplay between a multitude of technologies, NC3 systems, and nuclear weapons decision-making.
In this episode’s “Turn Back The Clock” segment, Jane is joined by Julia Berghofer, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Leadership Network. In light of the Biden Administration’s decision to undertake a failsafe review of the United States’ nuclear command, control, and communications systems, Julia provides a history of nuclear failsafe reviews, and what’s changed since the United States undertook its first such review in the early 1990s.
Finally, in “The Debrief”, Jane and Edan reflect on the episode and share their key takeaways and favourite moments.
Find out more information on the ELN’s Nuclear and New Technologies project here.
The European Leadership Network itself as an institution holds no formal policy positions. The opinions articulated above represent the views of the authors rather than the European Leadership Network or its members. The ELN aims to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time, to further its charitable purposes.
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