PDI Live Debates

As an extension of the PONI Debates the Issus (PDI) blog, PONI periodically hosts live debates on urgent or otherwise controversial nuclear issues and policies. The debate format permits a more dynamic, free-flowing exchange of ideas than what typically transpires during moderated panel discussions, lectures, and presentations, resulting in an enriched yet focused examination of critical issues. The objective is not to determine winners and losers or to establish the right way to solve a problem, but rather to explore a topic in a manner that elucidates underlying assumptions about the issue at-hand and that identifies specific points of agreement and departure. A thorough understanding of the information and assumptions that inform divergent viewpoints on nuclear issues can ultimately lead to better approaches and policy options.

Debate 1 - Resolved: The U.S. federal government should provide the requested funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program. Clark Murdock, Senior Advisor, CSIS (Affirmative) vs. Joseph Cirincione, President, Ploughshares Fund (Negative). February 12, 2009. Event page with live video.

Debate 2 - Resolved: The Obama Administration should make the Global Zero vision of a world free of nuclear weapons a central focus of its foreign policy. George Perkovich, Vice President of Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Affirmative) vs. J.D. Crouch, Deputy National Security Adviser and Assistant to President George W. Bush (Negative). April 13, 2009. Event page with live video.

Debate 3 - Resolved: The U.S. Congress should ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Daryll Kimball, Executive Director, Arms Control Association (Affirmative) vs. Stephen Rademaker, Senior Counsel, BGR Group, Inc. (Negative). May 13, 2009. Event page with live video.

Debate 4 - Resolved: that the United States should continue the policy of complete and verifiable disarmament of the Korean Peninsula. Bruce Klingner, Senior Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation (Affirmative), vs. Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow, CATO Institute (Negative). July 15, 2009. Event page with live video.

Debate 5 - Resolved: that the United States should pursue a negotiated agreement with Russia to de-alert each country's nuclear arsenal by implementing reversible physical changes to substantially increase the time required to launch. John Steinbrunner, Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland (Affirmative), vs. Walter Slocombe, Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (Negative). November 5, 2009. Event page with live video.