The Future of Nuclear Weapons

Hosted by: AIIA in Sydney

The event will start on: Tuesday, 02 August 2011 6:00 PM

And will end on: Tuesday, 02 August 2011 7:30 PM

At The Glover Cottages, Sydney

124 Kent Street , Sydney NSW

02 9247 8504     nswexec@aiia.asn.au

Posted by: nsw   

Meet a World Authority on Nuclear Weapons, Hans M Kristensen

The threat of nuclear war is seldom in the headlines, but it always with us. The prospect of a nuclear holocaust was ever present in the Cold War, but has now receded as Russia and the United States have come to uneasy terms with each other. But those fears have been replaced by many other countries possessing nuclear weapons, or planning to do so in the near future.
The nuclear wonks' wonk, aka Hans M Christiansen, is one of the few people outside the realms of the leading intelligence agencies who knows and understands not only who has nuclear weapons and in what volume, but also their stage of readiness, and policy considerations that might lead to their deployment.
He is coming to Sydney next month, and one of his first stops will be The Glover Cottages to meet members of the AIIA, where we will be able to ask him questions like:

What is the present nuclear balance between the US and Russia?
What is NATO's present nuclear capability and readiness to use it?
How do you quantify counties like China and Israel as nuclear powers?
How real are threats from North Korea, Iran and Pakistam?

Hans M. Kristensen is director of the Nuclear Information Project at the
Federation of American Scientists, where he provides the public with analysis and
background information about the status of nuclear forces and the role
of nuclear weapons.
He specialises in using the Freedom of Information Act in his research and is widely
referenced in the news media on the role and status of nuclear weapons.
Mr Kristensen is co-author of the Nuclear Notebook column in the Bulletin
of Atomic Scientists and the World Nuclear Forces overview in the
SIPRI yearbook.
Between 2002 and 2005, Kristensen was a consultant to the nuclear
program at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington,
where he researched nuclear weapons issues and wrote the report "U.S.
Nuclear Weapons In Europe" (February 2005) and co-authored numerous
articles including "What's Behind Bush's Nuclear Cuts" (Arms Control
Today, October 2004) and "The Protection Paradox" (Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists, March/April 2004). Between 1998 and 2002, Kristensen
directed the Nuclear Strategy Project at the Nautilus Institute in
Berkeley, California, and he was a Special Advisor to the Danish Ministry of
Defense in 1997-1998 as a member of the Danish Defense Commission. He
was a Senior Researcher with the Nuclear Information Unit of Greenpeace
International in Washington D.C from 1991 to 1996, prior to which he
coordinated the Greenpeace Nuclear Free Seas Campaign in Denmark,
Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Cost: AIIA members $15; Senior members / students $10; Visitors $20; Senior Visitors $15