Please Note: Due to Covid-19, presentations will be delivered via Zoom Webinar through December 2020.
WACHH members participate at no charge. Non-members must register via the website and pay $10 to participate.
Abstract
No matter who will be sitting in the Oval Office on January 21, 2021, they will be confronted with multiple nuclear crises. They will have to make choices that will affect whether we are living in a world in which the number of nuclear weapons is going up or going down. These choices will be related to both internal and external policies. Should we use nuclear weapons first in a crisis? Do we need more than one person involved in the authorization of a nuclear strike? Is it is a good idea to invest in new low-yield nuclear capabilities? Should we reenter what's left of the Iran Deal? How do we make arms control agreements with Russia when the trust between our nations is broken?
Alexandra Bell will outline current global nuclear threats and their related policy choices. She will then discuss how the President and Congress can and should respond to those threats.
Biography
Alexandra Bell is the Senior Policy Director at the Center for Arms Control & Non-Proliferation. Her areas of focus include bilateral and multilateral arms control and non-proliferation, Euro-Atlantic security, diplomacy, and Congressional affairs. Previously, Bell served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Before joining the Department of State in 2010, she worked on nuclear policy issues at the Ploughshares Fund and the Center for American Progress.
Bell received a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the New School and a Bachelor’s degree in Peace, War and Defense from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 2001-2003, she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica. Bell is a Member of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) Board of Directors, a Deep Cuts Project Commissioner, a Truman National Security Fellow, a 2012-2017 Council on Foreign Relations Term Member, and a 2017 Munich Security Conference Young Leader.
Bell has been quoted or published in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Economist, the Guardian, the Raleigh News and Observer, the Seattle Times, Bloomberg, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Politico, Vox, The Daily Beast, Time Magazine, Bustle, Huffington Post, Sinclair, Inkstick, and more. She has also provided commentary for MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, BBC, CGTN, and Al Jazeera.
