The 13,000 nuclear warheads that exist across the world today are enough to eradicate humanity several times over. Given the real risk that nuclear disruption still represents, it should feature more prominently in the public debate. In this episode, we speak to Benoît Pelopidas, Associate Professor at Sciences Po, to understand the state of the threat today. We ask him about his research on close calls and the role of luck in preventing nuclear catastrophe. He unravels much of the prevailing logic around nuclear deterrence, warns of the dangers of relying on information from the official experts in nuclear weapons states, and discusses how the magnitude of the threat can be conveyed to the general public.
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Benoît Pelopidas is Associate Professor at Sciences Po in Paris. He is the Principal Investigator of a 1.5 million euros project on nuclear weapons choices, funded by the European Research Council – one of the most competitive and prestigious EU grants. He is also the founding director of Nuclear Knowledges, the first academic research program in France on the nuclear phenomenon. The program is independent and entirely transparent on its sources of funding, based on peer reviewed assessment of scholarly work. Professor Pelopidas is also an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University and has been a visiting fellow at Princeton University. In recent years, he has engaged with policymakers in the US and Europe as well as with civil society groups, to advocate innovative nuclear disarmament and arms control policies. Benoît Pelopidas is the author of Repenser les choix nucléaires (Rethinking Nuclear Choices), published earlier this year at Presses de Sciences Po.
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Credits
Host: Dr. Emmanuel Kattan
Editor and Producer: Monica Beatrice Hunter-Hart
Producer: Abdibasid Ali