Friederike Frieß, Amb. Alexander Kmentt & Nikolai Sokov: ARE WE READY FOR THE NEW NUCLEAR AGE?

Solmaz Khorsand in conversation with Friederike Frieß, Amb.
Alexander Kmentt and Nikolai Sokov





ARE WE READY FOR THE NEW NUCLEAR AGE?


 


The world has entered a dangerous new phase in dealing with
nuclear risks, “the third nuclear age” driven by an often
referenced and poorly defined “great power competition” as
Alexandra Bell, President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists put it. There are persistent nuclear threats from
Putin’s regime and by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s
alarming missile tests. Furthermore, US President Donald Trump is
calling for renewed testing of America’s nuclear infrastructure.


What will the world look like when, as IAEA Director General
Rafael Grossi predicts, there are 20 to 25 nuclear-armed states
instead of the current nine, and they flex their muscles more and
more?


What cards do the proponents of a rule-based world order still
have to convince nuclear-hungry leaders of the threat posed by
these weapons, which they brandish like toys? What is the future
of non-proliferation treaties and diplomacy?





Friederike Frieß, physicist and senior
researcher at BOKU’s Institute for Safety and Risk Sciences and
member of the UN Scientific Panel on the Effects of Nuclear War



Amb. Alexander Kmentt, Permanent Representative
of Austria to the United Nations Office and International
Organisations in Geneva
Nikolai Sokov, Senior Fellow at the Vienna
Center for Disarmament and Non – Proliferation and former Soviet
and Russian arms control negotiator


Moderator:


Solmaz Khorsand, independent journalist,
podcaster, and award-winning author focusing on socio-political
issues