Session: Session 2
Date/Time: April 28, 2015 / 15:30-16:45

Moderator:
James Acton, Carnegie Endowment for Int’l Peace

Speakers:
Sven Jurschewsky, Foreign Service Officer, Canada (ret.)
Shin Chang-Hoon, The Asan Institute for Policy Studies
Richard Weitz, Hudson Institute
Yang Xiyu, China Institute of International Studies

Panel Description

While the U.S. and Russia have made important progress in reducing their nuclear weapons stockpiles in recent years, China, India, and Pakistan have actually accelerated their nuclear weapons programs. A nuclear deal between Iran and the international community may leave it with some enrichment capacity while Israel and Saudi Arabia among others staunchly opposes any such deal. Meanwhile, North Korea stubbornly persists in perfecting its nuclear arsenal. At a time when dozens of states have mastered the technology to develop their own nuclear weapons, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is at risk of unraveling. Six years since President Obama’s speech calling for a world free of nuclear weapons, the challenges remain daunting. Can the U.S. still lead the way in nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament? Can the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons ever be realized?