Nuclear Weapons: The Other Global Existential Threat

While the world grapples with COVID-19 and the climate emergency, nuclear war remains a real and present danger to the future of humanity. So why is nobody talking about it?   

Throughout the Cold War, nuclear confrontation was a threat that overshadowed everyone’s lives and was reflected in popular culture and debate. Today, we are confronted with the dangerous prospect of a new nuclear arms race, yet it is barely spoken about. Despite big reductions since the end of the Cold War, around 13,000 nuclear warheads are still in existence. These have a combined destructive capability of close to 100,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs. Worryingly, a large proportion of the total–nearly 4,000–remain operationally deployed. The weapons are still there, but where is the political debate and public scrutiny?  

In this episode, hosts Hazami Barmada and Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland, former UN High-Commissioner For Human Rights and Chair of The Elders) are joined by a leading global nuclear expert, Joe Cirincione, to unpack the looming threat of big scale mass destruction posed by nuclear weapons and efforts needed to eliminate future nuclear threats.

We look at the state of nuclear arms around the world. Who has them, who wants them, and why? What are the social, economic and political consequences of inaction on curbing a nuclear threat? Are nuclear non-proliferation and elimination policies effective? How can we curb the nuclear threat we’re facing and what are our best hopes for ultimately achieving a world free of nuclear weapons?

Speaker Biographies:

Joe Cirincione is National Security Analyst and Distinguished Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Joe is a national security analyst and author with over 35 years of experience in Washington, D.C. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington and is the author or editor of seven books, including Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World before It Is Too Late andBomb Scare:  The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons. He served previously as president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation, vice president for national security at the Center for American Progress, director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, among other positions.  He worked for over nine years on the professional staff of the Armed Services Committee and the Government Operations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is adjunct faculty at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He appears frequently on television, radio and in the media and is the author of over eight hundred articles and reports on defense and national security.

Mary Robinson is former President of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Chair of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, who work together for peace, justice and human rights.

Mary Robinson was the first woman President of Ireland (1990–1997) and is a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997–2002). A tireless advocate for justice, she was President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative from 2002 to 2010. Mary Robinson served as the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa from 2013-2014, stepping down in July 2014 to take up the post of Special Envoy for Climate Change. She continued in this post until the end of December 2015 which saw the successful conclusion of the COP21 Climate Summit and the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In 2016, Mary Robinson served as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate.

Hazami Barmada is the Founder and CEO of the Humanity Lab Foundation and Executive Producer and Host of the Finding Humanity Podcast

Hazami is a social entrepreneur, thought leader, and public affairs and social impact expert recognized by Forbes as an “inspirational agent of change.” She has consulted for many leading global brands including the United Nations, United Nations Foundation, Aspen Institute, and the Royal Court of the Sultanate of Oman. She served as the Coordinator for the United Nations Secretary General's World Humanitarian Summit, an Advisor to the first-ever United Nations Secretary-General's Youth Envoy, as as a member of the UN's SDG Strategy Hub. Hazami has a Masters from Harvard University where she was an Edward S. Mason Fellow in Public Policy and Management. She studied social and public policy at Georgetown University and has a BA from Rhodes College in Anthropology and Sociology.

Finding Humanity is a production of Humanity Lab Foundation and Hueman Group Media. This series is produced in collaboration with The Elders.  

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