Ethical and Security Implication of Nuclear and Emerging Technologies

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Nuclear perils, conflicts, and wars continue to be a major threat. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought back nuclear fears to the forefront of international conversations, from the strategic and ethical implications of nuclear uses to the potential accidents caused by the shelling of nuclear power plants. The threat of nuclear use and conflict has also restarted conversations about the appropriateness of nuclear doctrines, strategies of nuclear targeting, and the consequences on political regimes of nuclear enterprises. Fortunately, since the invention of nuclear weapons, there have been global efforts to reduce the possibility of nuclear wars and perils, offering valuable lessons for us today when Russia threatens nuclear attacks and nuclear states are advancing their arsenals. This panel finds the urgency to explore various traditions, values, ethics, norms, and histories against nuclear violence and weapons. Papers in this panel explore a wide range of thoughts and political actions, including the moral framework for nuclear justice, the discourse of nuclear free, the norm of nuclear nonuse, the role of the law of armed conflict, and the framings of nuclear dual-use. The papers also address the role of various actions— the general public, antinuclear activists, and policymakers— and focus on different regions, many of which remained unexplored in the fields of International Security and Nuclear Studies— the Global South, Japan, the Pacific Islands, and China. Japan.

Sub Unit

• Division 19: International Security 

Individual Presentations

• The Fog of Law and China’s Nuclear Strategy - Fiona Cunningham, University of Pennsylvania

• Social Reputation, Public Opinion, and US Nuclear Non-use in the Cold War - Jennifer L. Erickson, Boston College

• Of Bombs and Reactors: Framing Nuclear Dualism in Public Discourse - Sidra Hamidi, Trinity College

• The Conceptual Complexity of Pacific Nuclear Free Movements - Ruoyu Li, Johns Hopkins University

• The Global Distribution of Nuclear Morals - J. Luis Rodriguez, George Mason University; Stephen Herzog, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey; Lauren Sukin, London School of Economics

Chair

• R. Charli Carpenter University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Discussant

• Julie George Cornell University