Professors in the Pub: Nuclear Weapons

Each month, come to Café des Taxis to have a drink and discuss important world events with professors and subject-matter experts. Share your questions and views and join the long tradition of politics in the pub! 

This month:

For close to two decades, the threat of nuclear weapons has been growing more frequent and intense. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, such threats have taken on an even more realistic character. North Korea has developed nuclear weapons, Iran is in the process of developing nuclear weapons, and China has expanded its nuclear forces considerably (albeit not without problems).

With all of these recent events, a Cold War era concern that so many of us thought was done and gone has returned. With it, existential fears, enhanced by the horrific mystique of the devices and the requisite insanity of anyone who would use them, have grown.

How do nuclear weapons work (and fail)? What is the wider infrastructure necessary for their use and maintenance? What is the difference between strategic and tactical nuclear weapons and “dirty” ones? What would a nuclear detonation in conflict look like?

Come discuss these questions and ask your own on April 11, 2024, at 6:30 pm, in Café des Taxis.

The lead professor for this discussion will be George Hays II, Chair of International Relations at AAU.