Description

The global nuclear order is undergoing major transformations. Policy makers around the world are facing complex decisions and – more importantly - costly trade-offs if strategic stability is to exist and be sustainable among nuclear-armed states. A combination of dramatic and wide ranging technological change, vigorous nuclear modernization, and the substantial waning of arms control is producing a more challenging and worrisome nuclear order. What nuclear order will arise as emerging technologies are folded into comprehensive modernization programs in an environment largely or wholly unregulated by arms control? What constitutes stable nuclear deterrence under such circumstances? What emerging technologies are most destabilizing for nuclear strategic stability? Which ones might lead to escalation across the nuclear threshold? The 59^th ISODARCO course will explore the technological, military, and arms control developments that are changing and challenging the global nuclear order.