Public event

Preventing nuclear proliferation and reassuring America's allies

In recent years, questions about the credibility of the US nuclear guarantee have re-emerged, leading to debates among some US allies about potential alternatives to US extended deterrence. A new task force report, chaired by Chuck Hagel, Malcolm Rifkind and Kevin Rudd with Ivo Daalder, analyzes the risk of potential nuclear proliferation among US allies and provides a set of policy recommendations to confront it. In this public event, Ivo Daalder, President of the Chicago Council, former US Permanent Representative to NATO and project director of the task force, and Wolfgang Ischinger who served as a member of the task force will discuss the findings of the report – with a particular emphasis on the ongoing debate in Germany and Europe about the future of US extended deterrence and NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangement.

Guest speaker

Ivo H. Daalder is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He served as the US ambassador to NATO from 2009-2013. Prior to his appointment as ambassador to NATO by President Obama, Daalder was a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, specializing in American foreign policy, European security and transatlantic relations, and national security affairs. Before joining Brookings in 1998, he was an associate professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy and director of research at its Center for International and Security Studies. He also served as director for European affairs on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council staff from 1995-97. Daalder is the author and editor of 10 books, including The Empty Throne: How America Abdicated Its Global Leadership (with James M. Lindsay) (2018). Daalder was educated at the universities of Kent, Oxford, and Georgetown, and received his PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Chair

Wolfgang Ischinger is Senior Professor of Security Policy and Diplomatic Practice at the Hertie School and Founding Director of the school’s Centre for International Security. He has been Chairman of the Munich Security Conference since 2008. From 2006 to 2008, he was Germany’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and from 2001 to 2006, he was Ambassador to the United States. Ischinger previously held a wide range of diplomatic and policymaking positions, including State Secretary (Deputy Foreign Minister, 1998-2001). In 2007, he served as the EU representative in the Troika negotiations on Kosovo. In 2014, he was the representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the National Dialogue Roundtables in Ukraine before serving as Chairman of the OSCE-mandated Panel of Eminent Persons on European Security as a Common Project in 2015. He studied at the universities of Bonn and Geneva, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and Harvard Law School.

About this event

This event is co-hosted with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. It is part of the Centre's research project "Understanding Nuclear Assurance, Deterrence and Escalation in Europe". Funded by the Stanton Foundation this project examines what is at the heart of European nuclear security. 

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