Zoom meeting: Nuclear Risks in an Age of War, Genocide and Global Shifts

Event Date: 12th December 2024
Location: Internet, 6:00 - 7:30pm

Zoom meeting: Nuclear Risks in an Age of War, Genocide and Global Shifts

Book tickets here

Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice Annual Lecture 2024: a Public Talk by CND Chair Tom Unterrainer

Thursday, December 12 | 6 – 7:30pm GMT

The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) is very pleased to be welcoming the Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Tom Unterrainer, to give its Annual Lecture for 2024.

The title of the CSSGJ’s 2024 Annual Lecture talk is “Nuclear Risks in an Age of War, Genocide and Global Shifts”

According to an expert panel assembled by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the risk of nuclear use is posed more sharply now than at any point since the opening of the atomic age. As such, the Atomic Scientists set the hands of the ‘Doomsday Clock’ to “90 Seconds to Midnight”, closer than it has ever been to global catastrophe.

“A nuclear war cannot be won and must not be fought” declare the nuclear-armed states in response to these developments. At the same time, they tell us that their commitment to nuclear weapons and the nuclear-armed NATO alliance is “unshakeable” and that such weapons and alliances are the “ultimate guarantee of security”. Alongside rising nuclear tensions, a new nuclear arms-race has opened. Every nuclear-armed state is modifying and upgrading weaponry, thus increasing nuclear risks to even greater heights.

Why is all this happening? What are the sources of these increased nuclear risks? What is driving the expansion of nuclear arsenals? Why – contrary to their public warnings against nuclear use – are the nuclear-armed states making nuclear war more likely? Why did the US sabotage the international system of rules designed to mitigate against nuclear use? What does all this mean in an age of war and a genocide perpetrated by a nuclear-armed state? Will the global shifts in power and influence increase or decrease nuclear tensions? What can be done in response?

Tom Unterrainer is Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He works for the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and co-edits The Spokesman journal.

Book tickets here