The Nuclear Table

Of all the existential threats humanity faces, nuclear weapons may be the easiest one to solve, because they are a human-made political problem.

Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, one of the key figures behind the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), joins The Nuclear Table to discuss why we are already in a nuclear arms race, why deterrence is riskier than it looks, and what the failure of another NPT Review Conference means for the future of the nuclear order.

The views expressed by Ambassador Kmentt are his personal views and do not represent the official position of the Austrian Foreign Ministry.

North Korea is no longer the country the international community was dealing with two decades ago. Its nuclear capabilities continue to develop, its relationship with Russia has deepened, and Pyongyang has become increasingly confident in navigating its relationships with the major powers.

In this episode, Dr. Ian Fleming Zhou speaks with Michael MacArthur Bosack, founder and researcher at the Parley Policy Institute and a former U.S. military officer and diplomat who spent nearly seven years working with the United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission on the Korean Peninsula. We discuss North Korea’s nuclear status, strategic autonomy, its evolving relationships with Russia and China, the risks of misreading Pyongyang’s behaviour, and whether it is time to think beyond denuclearization toward arms control, risk reduction and a broader approach to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

China is expanding its nuclear forces but what is actually driving that change?

In this episode of The Nuclear Table, I sit down with Dr Tong Zhao, Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and one of the leading experts on China's nuclear strategy, to discuss Beijing's strategic thinking, North Korea, missile defence, strategic stability, and the future of U.S.-China arms control.

In this episode of The Nuclear Table, Darya Dolzikova joins Dr. Ian Fleming Zhou to unpack the Iran-US-Israel crisis through the lens of nuclear risk, escalation, and counterproliferation. The conversation explores why military strikes rarely eliminate nuclear capability, what “being close to a bomb” actually means, the limits of sanctions and diplomacy, nuclear latency and hedging, and whether current developments could reshape how states think about deterrence and proliferation. The episode also examines the risks of targeting safeguarded nuclear facilities and what this crisis means for the future of nuclear governance and strategic stability.

In 2026, disinformation is no longer peripheral to nuclear politics, it is shaping how risk is understood, communicated, and acted upon in real time. In a domain where decisions are made under extreme uncertainty and compressed timelines, false or manipulated narratives can influence crisis interpretation before facts are verified.

In this episode of The Nuclear Table, Dr Ian Fleming Zhou is joined by researchers from the Open Nuclear Network working on the Global Partnership WMD Counter-Disinformation Project. Together, they examine how radiological and nuclear disinformation operates, why it is particularly dangerous, and whether current responses are keeping pace with the scale of the threat.

This conversation asks a critical question: if disinformation is now embedded in the nuclear risk environment, are we treating it with the urgency it requires?

For More information:

Open Nuclear Network

GP WMD Counter-Disinformation

The 2026 NPT Review Conference opens on April 27th in New York. The last two failed. And the conditions that produced those failures have not been resolved, they have compounded.

Russia's war in Ukraine is now in its fourth year with nuclear signaling from Moscow fully normalized. New START, the last treaty limiting US and Russian nuclear arsenals expired in February with nothing to replace it. France has announced it is expanding its arsenal and embracing strategic ambiguity. Iranian nuclear facilities have been struck twice by US and Israeli forces. And states that once would never have entertained independent nuclear deterrence - Japan, South Korea, and several European capitals are now openly discussing it.

The arms control and nonproliferation regime is eroding faster than the glaciers are melting. So what now for the cornerstone of the global nuclear order?

In this episode, Dr. Olamide Samuel and Dr. Manuel Herrera join the Nuclear Table to ask whether there is a credible path forward — or whether we are heading for a third consecutive failure that begins to normalize the breakdown of the review process itself.

Dr. Olamide Samuel is Network and Engagement Specialist at the Open Nuclear Network (ONN), a Vienna-based programme dedicated to reducing the risk of nuclear weapons use through innovation, open-source data, and inclusive dialogue across national and alliance boundaries.

Dr. Manuel Herrera is Senior Policy Fellow and Programme Manager of the Nonproliferation and Disarmament Programme at the British American Security Information Council (BASIC), a London-based nonpartisan think tank working at the intersection of policymakers, academia, and civil society to advance nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation through sustained dialogue and engagement.

Together, they take on the structural failures of 2022, the new flashpoints that make 2026's room more dangerous, the disarmament deadlock, the role of the TPNW, and the hardest question of all — what does success actually look like when the traditional pass/fail binary on the outcome document may itself be part of the problem.

The Nuclear Table is a podcast exploring nuclear issues, nonproliferation, disarmament, and nuclear diplomacy.

Subscribe on YouTube and Spotify to stay informed.

Artificial intelligence is moving fast. Nuclear decision-making was never designed for it.

In this episode of The Nuclear Table, Ian Fleming Zhou sits down with Alice Saltini and Andrew Reddie to unpack what AI means for nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3).

How much automation already exists in nuclear systems? Do political declarations at the UN meaningfully reduce risk or do we need more technically grounded agreements? And in a world of limited trust, what confidence-building measures around AI are actually realistic?

The conversation explores the tension between innovation and stability, the role of human control, and whether states are building governance frameworks quickly enough to match technological change.

At a pivotal moment for both AI and nuclear policy, this episode asks: are we shaping the future of nuclear stability or reacting to it?

As the arms control architecture continues to unravel after New START, what tools are left to manage nuclear danger? In this episode of The Nuclear Table, Dr. Ian Fleming Zhou speaks with Amy Woolf about the erosion of treaty-based arms control, the loss of dialogue and institutional memory, and why managing risk may now matter more than pursuing comprehensive agreements. The conversation explores micro-risk reduction, emerging technologies, crisis instability, and what restraint can look like in an increasingly uncertain nuclear landscape.

As the expiration of New START draws closer, the future of strategic arms control looks increasingly uncertain. In this episode of The Nuclear Table, Dr. Ian Fleming Zhou sits down with Dr. Nikolai Sokov, a veteran arms control negotiator and former official in both the Soviet and Russian Ministries of Foreign Affairs, to examine what comes next when treaties erode but nuclear risks remain.

The conversation explores why numerical limits without verification offer only fragile stability, how modernization programs and emerging “new strategic systems” complicate arms control, and why efforts to multilateralize negotiations particularly by bringing China into the fold remain deeply contested. Dr. Sokov also reflects on how complacency about nuclear war has replaced the urgency that once drove Cold War–era arms control, leaving today’s policymakers without the pressure or fear that once compelled restraint.

As arms control infrastructure erodes and atomic anxiety quietly grows, this episode asks a central question: can strategic stability survive without guardrails or are we drifting toward a more dangerous future?

In this debut episode of The Nuclear Table, Ian Fleming Zhou sits down with Dr. Mariana Budjeryn to unpack the lessons of the Budapest Memorandum. They discuss Ukraine’s surrender of its nuclear arsenal, the failure to enforce security assurances after 2014, and how those choices shaped the 2022 invasion. A candid look at accountability, credibility, and what Ukraine’s story means for the future of nuclear diplomacy.