One of the greatest demands of our time is a sustainable and secure supply of energy. While nuclear power is only one of the many types of energy that will be employed to meet both the world’s growing energy needs and address concerns about climate change, it is the only one that avoids carbon emissions and is sufficiently technologically advanced to be employed on a large scale in a relatively short time frame. However, because nuclear power and nuclear weapons are inextricably linked by the technologies that provide the infrastructure for both, a rapid increase in the use of nuclear energy could affect global security as more states acquire nuclear expertise and nuclear materials. The expansion of nuclear power plants and related facilities also provides terrorist groups with an attractive new set of targets. With this in mind, the American Academy is sponsoring a project – the Global Nuclear Future Initiative – whose goals are to identify measures to limit future proliferation risks and to engage with key constituencies who will have a significant impact on the character of the international nuclear order. Please join The Chicago Council and the American Academy to learn more about the global nuclear future.

Steven Miller is director of the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal International Security and coeditor of the International Security Program’s book series, BCSIA Studies in International Security. He was senior research fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and taught defense and arms control studies in the department of political science at MIT. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves as a member of the Academy’s Committee on International Security Studies. He is a coleader of the Academy’s initiative on the Global Nuclear Future.

Robert Rosner is the William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor in the departments of astronomy and astrophysics, and physics at the University of Chicago. He is former president of UChicago Argonne, LLC and former director of Argonne National Laboratory. Previously, he served as chairman of the department of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago, director of the Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes at the University of Chicago, and was the Rothschild Visiting Professor at the Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a foreign member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a senior advisor to the Global Nuclear Future Initiative.

Scott Sagan is the Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, codirector of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and a senior fellow at The Freeman Spogli Institute. Before joining the Stanford faculty, Sagan was a lecturer in the department of government at Harvard University and served as a special assistant to the director of the organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon. He has also served as a consultant to the office of the Secretary of Defense, the Sandia National Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves as a coleader of the Academy’s initiative on the Global Nuclear Future.

Business attire is required.

Recorded Monday, February 08, 2010 at The Chicago Club.