Speakers: Mark S. Bell,  Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota Twin Cities; 

Julia Macdonald, Assistant Professor in International Relations, Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver

How dangerous are nuclear crises, and how should scholars and policymakers think about them? What dynamics govern how they unfold? The speakers argue that correctly interpreting nuclear crises—and how one thinks about the effects of nuclear weapons during these times—hinges on crisis participants' theories about processes of escalation to the nuclear level. 

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Co-sponsored by Project on Managing the Atom

How do nuclear weapons affect the foreign policies of the states that acquire them? In this presentation, MTA/ISP Predoctoral Research Fellow Mark S. Bell will first offer a typology of behaviours that nuclear weapons facilitate, distinguishing between aggression, expansion, independence, bolstering, steadfastness, and compromise. Second, he will offer a theory to explain why different states use nuclear weapons to facilitate different combinations of these behaviours. Third, he will useprimary evidence from the South African and British cases to offer an initial test of the theory.

How do nuclear weapons change the foreign policies of the states that acquire them? This seminar offers a theory explaining the origins of six foreign policy behaviors that nuclear acquisition may facilitate. The theory describes which of these behaviors states are likely to find attractive and thus which behaviors states are likely to use nuclear acquisition to facilitate.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

What happens to the foreign policies of states when they acquire nuclear weapons? This presentation will offer a new typology of the effects of nuclear weapons on foreign policy. The typology allows scholars to move beyond simple claims of “nuclear emboldenment,” and allows for more nuanced predictions and empirical examinations of the ways in which nuclear weapons affect the foreign policies of current and future nuclear states. In this seminar, MTA/ISP Research Fellow Mark Bell will demonstrate the utility of this typology using a “hard” case: the United Kingdom.