APLN’s new video series – ‘Talking Nuclear’ – takes you inside the world of nuclear diplomacy with seasoned professionals. In this series, APLN Senior Research Adviser Dr Manpreet Sethi interviews veteran diplomats and seasoned practitioners about key nuclear issues of the past, present and future.

In the first part of this series, Dr Manpreet Sethi is joined by Ambassador Sujata Mehta, former Indian Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, and a senior network member and International Advisory Board member of APLN.

Amb Mehta contrasts the “East-West” fault line of the 1980s — a time when she was a young diplomat — with today’s world, where multiple nuclear-armed nations exist but have largely stopped communicating. She discusses the “trifecta” of risk – a dangerous convergence of nuclear threats, climate change, and disruptive technologies (like AI), and finds the lack of “guardrails” or expert oversight for these emerging technologies particularly disturbing.

Watch the interview here.

About APLN’s ‘Talking Nuclear’ Interview Series

Talking Nuclear is a video series from the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network, featuring Dr Manpreet Sethi, Senior Research Adviser, in conversation with the senior network members of the APLN, on a broad range of nuclear issues. The conversation takes place in three parts: current state of global nuclear affairs, past successes in arms control negotiations, and ways to move ahead.

• Building confidence between regional rivals amid technological disruption
• Engaging nuclear-armed states in confidence-building and risk reduction measures
• Developing new frameworks for emerging technologies and delivery systems