New thinking and new directions for global nuclear politics

The Global Nuclear Order Working Group is pleased to announce the programme our Online Conference 2026, to be held Wednesday 15 April. The conference will bring together contributions that interrogate existing thinking and propose new directions for the field.

We have received an exciting set of papers, which address questions clustered around core themes of AI in nuclear arms control and deterrence, changing strategic landscapes and the emergence of new axes of nuclear threat, afterlives and hazards of nuclear technology, and (re)thinking about nuclear disarmament in a changing and unstable world.

The GNO group convenor team will carefully read and discuss all papers and facilitate what we hope will be lively Q&A sessions.

All BISA members are welcome - please join us for one or both panels.

Programme

Panel 1: The “Third Nuclear Age”? Emerging axes of nuclear threat (10am BST)

‘Nuclear Deterrence—Justifying Securitisation and Humanity’s Survival’

- Rhys Lewis-Jones (Cardiff University, UK)

‘Decentring the Third Nuclear Age: South Asia's Pluriversal Nuclear Orders’

- Alisha B. (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)

‘The Danger of Seeking Competitive Advantage in Arms Control: Lessons from Nuclear Weapons for Artificial Intelligence’

- Peter Rautenbach (University of Leicester, UK)

‘Interplay between Environmental Risks and Geopolitics: Focusing on the Fukushima Water Release Discourses in South Korea’

- Yeonsu Lee (University of Leeds, UK)

Discussant: BISA GNO convenors

Panel 2: Controlling, managing, and abolishing nuclear dangers in the 21st century (3pm BST)

‘Conceptualizing State Advocacy for Nuclear Disarmament’

- Katja Astner (University of Innsbruck, Austria)

‘Waste Matters: Nuclear Technopolitics and Futures at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico’

- Laura Considine (University of Leeds, UK)

‘Algorithmic Nuclear Arms Control: The risks and opportunities of AI-enhanced verification of arms control treaties’

- Ramesh Balakrishnan (Independent researcher, Canada)

‘Youth Antinuclear Socialisation in Canada: Early Encounters with the Concept of Nuclear Weapons’

- Franco Castro Escobar (Keele University, UK)

Discussant: BISA GNO convenors

Registration will close two hours before the event begins.