In this episode of Machiavelli in the Ivory Tower, hosts Sarah and Hanna speak with Ulrich Kühn, who is head of the research area “Arms Control and Emerging Technologies” at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH) and a Non-Resident Scholar of the Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They discuss “Germany and Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century: Atomic Zeitenwende?”, a new book Ulrich edited and published with Routledge in early 2024.

Topics addressed:

1. “Germany and Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century: Atomic Zeitenwende?”
2. Germany and nuclear deterrence options: State of play of the German debate
3. Atomic Zeitenwende and public opinion
4. Germany's technical/technological capacity for Atomic Zeitenwende
5. Germany as a potential proliferator in comparative perspective
6. Germany's balancing act between nuclear deterrence and disarmament
7. How to bridge the divide between policymakers and the expert community

In this episode of Machiavelli in the Ivory Tower, hosts Hanna and Sarah are joined by Rose McDermott, the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor of International Relations at Brown University. Together, they discuss Professor McDermott's recent article with Reid Pauly on the psychology of nuclear brinkmanship, the under-appreciated role of individuals in nuclear decision-making, and similarities and differences between the psychologies of political elites and the general population. They also consider more generally how and where political psychology and behavioral economics can enhance security studies by challenging normative assumptions about nuclear decision-making and shedding light on the ways that individuals actually behave in the face of uncertainty. Their conversation concludes with an exploration of the policy implications of Professor McDermott's findings and ways to more effectively bridge the gap between scholarship and practice.

In this episode of Machiavelli in the Ivory Tower, hosts Sarah and Hanna speak with Ankit Panda, who is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They begin their wide-ranging discussion with a review of Ankit's 2020 book "Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea". Sarah, Hanna, and Ankit then engage in an exchange on current developments on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea's cooperation with Russia, and the need to treat North Korea as a problem of nuclear risk reduction, among other issues. They end by discussing the challenges of studying North Korean nuclear weapons issues and how academia and policy-makers can most fruitfully interact.