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Show Notes

Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, joins us to discuss the current risks of nuclear war, policies that can reduce the risks of nuclear conflict, and how to move towards a nuclear weapons free world.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

• The current nuclear weapons geopolitical situation
• The risks and mechanics of accidental and intentional nuclear war
• Policy proposals for reducing the risks of nuclear war
• Deterrence theory
• The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
• Working towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

4:28 Overview of the current nuclear weapons situation

6:47 The 9 nuclear weapons states, and accidental and intentional nuclear war

9:27 Accidental nuclear war and human systems

12:08 The risks of nuclear war in 2021 and nuclear stability

17:49 Toxic personalities and the human component of nuclear weapons

23:23 Policy proposals for reducing the risk of nuclear war

23:55 New START Treaty

25:42 What does it mean to maintain credible deterrence

26:45 ICAN and working on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

28:00 Deterrence theoretic arguments for nuclear weapons

32:36 Reduction of nuclear weapons, no first use, removing ground based missile systems, removing hair-trigger alert, removing presidential authority to use nuclear weapons

39:13 Arguments for and against nuclear risk reduction policy proposals

46:02 Moving all of the United State's nuclear weapons to bombers and nuclear submarines

48:27 Working towards and the theory of the total elimination of nuclear weapons

1:11:40 The value of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

1:14:26 Elevating activism around nuclear weapons and messaging more skillfully

1:15:40 What the public needs to understand about nuclear weapons

1:16:35 World leaders' views of the treaty

1:17:15 How to get involved

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