From Nuclear Deterrence to Democratic Resilience: Towards a 21st Century Security Paradigm

https://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/projects/conflict-and-civicness-research-group/events/debating-the-role-of-nuclear-weapons

Join us for a debate on the future of European security and the launch of a new policy paper from the Conflict and Civicness Research Group (CCRG) at LSE. This event marks the culmination of a two-year research project exploring how societies can ensure safety and stability in an age of global polarisation and disorder and whether nuclear deterrence remains the best path forward.

The policy paper at the centre of this debate argues that democratic resilience provides a safer and more effective foundation for European and global security than reliance on nuclear deterrence. It contends that the political threat to democracy today is as grave as the military one and calls for both robust conventional defence of frontline states and renewed efforts to strengthen social cohesion, human security and the rights-based international order.

The launch will bring together leading scholars, policymakers and security experts who will debate the merits and limits of nuclear deterrence, consider its moral and strategic implications, and explore alternative visions for collective security in the 21st century.

Meet the Speakers

Mary Kaldor is Director of LSE IDEA’s Conflict and Civicness Research Group and Professor Emeritus of Global Governance at LSE. She has pioneered the concepts of new wars and global civil society. Kaldor is the author of many books and articles including  International Law and New Wars and Global Security Cultures .

George Robertson is a British Labour politician best known for serving as the 10th Secretary General of NATO from 1999 to 2003 and as the UK Secretary of State for Defence from 1997 to 1999. A former MP for Hamilton, he became a life peer in the House of Lords in 1999 and has held various other roles in business and advisory positions, including with The Cohen Group. He was Lead Reviewer of the UK Government’s 2025 Strategic Defence Review.

Clive Lewis is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Norwich South since 2015, as he was successfully re-elected at both the June 2017 and December 2019 General Elections. Lewis was a candidate for Leader of the Labour Party in the 2020 leadership election and has previously served on the Labour frontbench as Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Defence and Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus.

Patricia Lewis is an independent expert on international security, focusing primarily on arms control and disarmament. Lewis is a member of the EEAS Space Advisory Board and is Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Group for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Previously, she was the Research Director for International Security at Chatham House, the Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute, and the Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research. She was also an Advisor to the 2008–10 International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

Chaired by:  Michael Cox, Founding Director of LSE IDEAS and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. He is Associate Fellow for the US and the Americas Programme at Chatham House, an advisor to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and a Guest Professor at CERIS.  Cox is the author, editor and co-editor of several volumes including works on the Cold War, US foreign policy and the former Soviet Union. His most recent work includes Afghanistan: Long War to Forgotten Peace and Ukraine: Russia’s War and the Future of Global Order’. His forthcoming co-edited book with Oxford University Press is entitled Chatham House: the First Hundred Years.