Revisiting Nuclear Logics: Why do Some States seek Nuclear Weapons?
Thursday 04 February, 2016
4:15 - 6pm, $0
Columbia University, International Affairs
420 West 118 Street, Room 1512
Why do some states seek nuclear weapons? And why do others renounce them? The consequences of those choices remain a perennial challenge to international security. Professor Solingen will reflect on the contributions of the late Kenneth Waltz to this field, examine competing and complementary logics explaining nuclear choices, and evaluate conceptual advances and empirical applications over the last decade. These advances highlight how complex systemic effects, approaches to the global economy, and reputational considerations are replacing what was once normal science in nuclear proliferation.
Etel Solingen is Thomas and Elizabeth Tierney Chair in Peace and Conflict at the University of California Irvine and previously Chancellor's Professor and President of the International Studies Association. Her book Nuclear Logics Contrasting Paths in East Asia and the Middle East received the APSAs Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for best book and the Robert Jervis and Paul Schroeder Award for best book on International History and Politics. She also authored Regional Orders at Century's Dawn Global and Domestic Influences on Grand Strategy; Comparative Regionalism; Industrial Policy, Technology, and International Bargaining; and edited Sanctions, Statecraft, and Nuclear Proliferation, The Politics of International and Regional Diffusion, and Scientists and the State. She received a MacArthur Foundation Research and Writing Award on Peace and International Cooperation, Social Science Research Council-Mac Arthur Foundation Fellowship on Peace and Security, SSRC/Japan Foundation Abe Fellowship, and several Distinguished Teaching awards. She chaired the Steering Committee of the University of California's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, ISAs International Political Economy Section and the APSAs International History and Politics Section.
The Annual Kenneth N. Waltz Lecture in International Relations was established by the Saltzman Institute in September 2008 in celebration of Waltzs many outstanding contributions to the field of international relations. Past speakers have included October 14, 2008 Stephen Van Evera, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "A Farewell to Geopolitics American Grand Strategy in the New Era" November 12, 2009 Robert O. Keohane, Princeton University, "Social Norms and Agency in World Politics" November 4, 2010 Stephen Walt, Harvard University, "Realism and American Grand Strategy The Case for Offshore Balancing" November 15, 2011 James Fearon, Stanford University, Anarchy is a Choice International Politics and the Problem of World Government April 11, 2013 Robert Powell, University of California, Berkeley, Nuclear Brinksmanship and Military Power October 30, 2014 Barry Posen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Why American Restraint Makes Sense in a World Going to Hell