Catch up: Video of Webinar with Dr James Acton, 8th April

Posted: 8th May 2024

Video of Webinar with Dr James Acton, 8th April @ 6pm

On Monday 8th April at 6pm we held our latest webinar with Dr James Acton.

Watch the video of the event below…

https://britishpugwash.org/webinar-with-dr-james-acton-8th-april-6pm/

We discussed rising tensions between the nuclear powers, and the prospects for a more peaceful world. In particular, we considered nuclear entanglement and escalation risks, and the impact of new technologies on nuclear decision-making.

The meeting was chaired by Peter Jenkins (Chair, British Pugwash). Dr Tim Street (Secretary, British Pugwash) was the discussant.

Biography:

James Acton holds the Jessica T. Mathews Chair and is co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A physicist by training, Acton is currently writing a book on the risks of entanglement between the nuclear and nonnuclear domains and how to mitigate them. His previous work on this subject includes the International Security article “Escalation through Entanglement.”

An expert on hypersonic weapons, Acton has testified on this topic to the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee and the congressionally chartered U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He has also testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee on nuclear modernization. Acton is a member of the International Advisory Council for the Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe. He has published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Dædalus, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Science & Global Security, and Survival.