Euro-Atlantic Deterrence: Challenges, Opportunities, Prospects

This panel discussion, hosted by the Centre for Nuclear Strategy and Security (CNSS) at King’s, will consider challenges, prospects and opportunities for strategic stability in the Euro-Atlantic region against the backdrop of evolving United States commitments and a changing security environment. Vipin Narang, Austin Long and Pranay Vaddi from the Centre for Nuclear Security Policy (CNSP) at MIT will offer introductory remarks, followed by responses from Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman of King's, and Corentin Bustlein from the French Ministry of Defence, followed by an open Q&A. The session will be chaired by Professor Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer.

This event marks the launch of the Centre for Nuclear Strategy and Security (CNSS) at King’s College London. Based in the Department of War Studies, the CNSS advances education, research and policy engagement on nuclear weapons and international security. Its mission is to train practitioners and scholars, provide research-based insights for decision-makers, and build interdisciplinary capacity to address issues such as nuclear proliferation, competition among nuclear powers, arsenal security, and the evolving role of nuclear weapons in global affairs.

Vipin Narang is the Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science and theinaugural Director of MIT’s Center for Nuclear Security Policy. From 2022 to 2024, he served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, overseeing US strategic capabilities across nuclear, space, missile defence, and cyber policy, for which he received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. He is the author of Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era (Princeton, 2014), winner of the 2015 ISA ISSS Best Book Award, and Seeking the Bomb: Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation (Princeton, 2022). His work has appeared in International Security, International Organization, Foreign Affairs, and major media outlets, and he received the 2020 ISSS Emerging Scholar Award for his contributions to the field of security studies.

Austin Long is a senior fellow at the Center for Nuclear Security Policy at MIT. Dr Long was previously appointed to the Senior Executive Service in October 2022. As DD StS, Dr Long is responsible for the formulation of Joint Staff positions and recommendations regarding strategy, plans and policy for strategic deterrence, space, cyberspace, electromagnetic spectrum operations, information operations, nuclear, missile defence, countering weapons of mass destruction, subsea and seabed warfare, arms control, and other international negotiations. Prior to joining the Joint Staff, Dr Long was a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation and an associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He was an analyst and adviser to the US military in Iraq (2007-2008) and Afghanistan (2011 and2013). In 2014-2015, he was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow.

Pranay Vaddi is a senior nuclear fellow at the Center for Nuclear Security Policy at MIT. From May 2022 to January 2025, he served as special assistant to President Joe Biden and senior director for arms control, disarmament, and non proliferation at the National Security Council. Prior to this, he served as a senior advisor in the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance at the Department of State, where he coordinated the department’s inputs for the Biden Nuclear Posture Review. Previously, he was a fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, focused on developing recommendations for US nuclear posture and arms control policy, and examined Congress’s role in arms control. He served for several years at the US Department of State, where he was the interagency coordinator for policy on the New START Treaty and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and joined numerous arms control delegations. He has testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and before the congressional US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Corentin Brustlein is deputy for defence policy and strategic foresight within the Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy at the French Ministry of Defence. Before joining the ministry, he was the director of the Security Studies Center at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) from 2015 to 2021 and, before that, a research fellow at IFRI from 2008. While at IFRI, he wrote extensively on defence strategy, nuclear policies, military balances, as well as arms control and risk reduction.

Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman is Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London. He was Professor of War Studies from 1982 to 2014 and Vice-Principal from 2003 to 2013. He was educated at Whitley Bay Grammar School and the Universities of Manchester, York and Oxford. Before joining King's, he held research appointments at Nuffield College Oxford, the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1996, he was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997. In 2003, he was awarded the KCMG (Knight Commander of St Michael and St George). In June2009 he was appointed to serve as a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War.

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