Ok, Doomer!

Thirty years ago, on 24 September 1996, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) opened for signature. In this special episode of Ok, Doomer!, we look at what the treaty has achieved over the past three decades, why it remains an important part of the global nuclear order despite never entering into force, and the challenges it faces today.

Hosted by the ELN’s Deputy Executive Director Bekki Field and Policy Fellow Jana Baldus, this episode asks what it will take to protect the global norm against nuclear testing at a time of growing geopolitical tension.

To begin, Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova of the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) joins us to discuss the CTBT’s significance for the wider multilateral nuclear order and its relationship with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Jana’s panel brings together Dr Oliver Meier of the ELN, Jenifer Mackby of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and Francesca Giovannini of Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center to examine some of the biggest challenges facing the CTBT and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Together, they discuss:

The challenges of maintaining and modernising the treaty’s verification regime and International Monitoring System (IMS)

Progress, and regression, towards the CTBT’s entry into force • Allegations of nuclear testing and non-compliance

The institutional and political challenges facing the CTBTO

What needs to happen in the coming years to protect the treaty and the norm against nuclear testing

Moving on to a special interview marking the CTBT’s 30th anniversary, Bekki is joined by Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). They discuss why the treaty still matters even though it has yet to enter into force, how its mechanisms can help clarify potentially misunderstood events, and the technical, operational and political challenges involved in sustaining its global verification regime.

Finally, in “The Debrief”, Bekki and Jana reflect on what they’ve heard and what the next 30 years could hold for the nuclear test ban.

Listen to previous episodes of Ok, Doomer! here.

Welcome to a special expanded episode of Ok, Doomer!, hosted by the ELN’s Deputy Executive Director Bekki Field and outgoing Project and Communications Officer Edan Simpson. Today, we ask a fundamental and urgent question: what comes next for the NPT at a moment of mounting pressure on the global nuclear order?

This episode was released to coincide with our webinar “Three Strikes and We’re Out? What’s Next for the NPT Review Process”, featuring Ambassador Đỗ Hùng Việt, President-designate of the 2026 NPT Review Conference, in conversation with the ELN about the 2026 conference and the NPT’s next chapter.

To begin, Bekki and Edan are joined by ELN Policy Fellow Jana Baldus to set the scene: what is the NPT, why does the Review Conference matter, and what is at stake as states prepare for the 2026 conference?

In a special debate, Bekki is joined by ELN Senior Network Member Ambassador Alexander Kmentt – who currently serves as the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations Office and to the Specialized Institutions in Geneva – and former United States Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman to examine the state of the NPT and debate its prospects. Their wide-ranging conversation considers the tensions surrounding nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, the divisions between nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon states, and what repeated difficulties in reaching consensus mean for the Treaty’s future.

Edan’s panel brings together Jana, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique Senior Research Felow Emmanuel Maitre, and UNIDIR Senior Researcher Almuntaser Alawi to take a closer look at the challenges facing the NPT review process and what could be done differently ahead of 2026. Together, they discuss:

Why the NPT review process has struggled to produce consensus.

How geopolitical tensions are affecting cooperation among NPT states parties.

What meaningful progress could look like at the 2026 Review Conference.

How the review process might be strengthened for the future.

Moving on to “Turn Back the Clock”, Bekki is joined by former United Nations Under-Secretary-General of Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu to look at the history of the NPT and its review process, how the treaty has evolved over more than five decades, and what lessons that history offers as states confront today’s nuclear risks.

Finally, in “The Debrief”, Bekki, Edan and Jana reflect on the arguments and ideas raised across this special episode and what they mean for the future of the NPT.

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Welcome to “Avoiding Accidental Armageddon: Nuclear Fail-Safe Reviews”, the second episode of our second Ok, Doomer! podcast series. Hosted by the ELN’s Deputy Executive Director Bekki Field and outgoing Project and Communications Officer Edan Simpson, this episode explores how nuclear fail-safe reviews can reduce the risk of accidental, mistaken or unauthorised nuclear use.

To begin, Bekki and Edan are joined once again by Julia Berghofer, Programme Lead for the ELN’s Nuclear Weapons and New Technologies programme, who explains what “fail-safe” means in the nuclear realm and why safeguards must be regularly reviewed.

Julia also outlines the ELN and Asia-Pacific Leadership Network’s work since 2024 examining how different nuclear-armed states understand fail- safe, what terminology they use, what measures they have adopted and how openly they discuss them.

Edan’s panel features Deborah Rosenblum, Joel Petersson Ivre and Héloïse Fayet. Together, they discuss:

Why fail-safe reviews can be politically controversial.

How trust, deterrence and geopolitical competition shape states’ approaches.

Whether fail-safe reviews can serve as confidence - and security-building measures.

How much transparency is useful or realistic.

What role non-nuclear-weapon states can play in supporting wider discussion.

Moving on to “Turn Back the Clock”, Bekki is joined by Tom McKane. They discuss the history of nuclear fail-safe reviews, the reasons non-nuclear-weapon states have had limited engagement with the issue, and what earlier efforts can teach policymakers seeking to reduce nuclear risks today.

Finally, in “The Debrief”, Bekki, Edan and Julia reflect on the tensions between secrecy and transparency and the different national approaches to fail-safe.

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Welcome to “Nuclear bombs and bots”, the first episode of our second series! Hosted by the ELN’s Deputy Executive Director, Bekki Field, this episode explores the relationship between new “disruptive” technologies and nuclear weapons.

To start the episode, Bekki is joined by Edan Simpson, ELN Project and Communications Officer, and Julia Berghofer, Head of the ELN’s Nuclear and New Technologies programme, to break down what a “new technology” actually is, and why they matter for nuclear weapons policy.

Edan’s “How To Fix It” panel features Younger Generation Leaders Network (YGLN) members Alice Saltini and Ksenija Trajkovska; Alice is a former ELN Policy Fellow, where she spearheaded our research projects in nuclear and new technologies. Nowadays, she is the Senior Research Lead at the Rhode Island School of Design and a Non-Resident Expert on AI at the James Martin Centre for Non-Proliferation Studies; Ksenija Trajkovska is a Senior OSINT & CBRN Analyst at Fenix Insight and an incoming Research Analyst at Open Nuclear Network.

We ask our panel:

Whether we focus so much on the risks posed by emerging technologies that we ignore their potential benefits to nuclear weapons systems?

And how important is training for military personnel to recognise and challenge the biases that can evolve from an increasing use of AI in military systems?



Moving on to “Turn Back the Clock”, where we look at how new technologies have historically affected nuclear weapons, Bekki is joined by Alexandra Bell, a YGLN alumnus, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Affairs in the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability (ADS) at the U.S. Department of State, and the President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Bekki and Alex discuss the history of these technological advancements, how technology changes threa perceptions, and how equipped the expert community is to cope with the pace of technological change.

Finally, as always, the episode wraps up with “The Debrief,” where Bekki, Edan and Julie review everything they’ve covered.

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Referenced in the podcast: The AI lens of cognitive warfare: Why LLMs language bias is a security risk by Ihor Samokhodskyi

Welcome to “Nukes & Other New Tech”, a bonus episode of “Ok, Doomer!”, the podcast series by The European Leadership Network’s (ELN) New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) network. Hosted by the ELN’s Policy and Impact Director, Jane Kinninmont and Project and Communications Coordinator, Edan Simpson, this episode takes a deep dive into the interplay between nuclear weapons and emerging and disruptive technologies...
In today’s special bonus episode, Jane and Edan are taking a deep dive into an ELN project exploring the emerging risks posed by the intersection between new technologies and nuclear weapons.  
 
In “What’s the Problem?” Jane is joined by Belen Bianco, a former a Policy Fellow at the European Leadership Network and current UN Official.,  Belen provides a welcome introduction to the ELN’s nuclear weapons and new technologies project. Belen also explains why the ELN decided to analyse the aggregate effects of new technologies on nuclear decision-making, as opposed to exploring the technologies in isolation, and outlines the potential future threat landscape in this field.to look at nuclear policy and nuclear risks which are evolving in a context where we don't just have one rapidly evolving technology, we have multiple technologies, all evolving fast and all of which are interacting with each other.
 
The episode then turns to Edan’s “How To Fix It” panel, which featuresfeaturing Rishi Paul, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Leadership Network, Héloïse Fayet, a member of the Younger Generation Leaders Network (YGLN) member and Research Fellow at the Security Studies Centre of IFRI (French institute of international relations), and Kim Westerich-Fellner,  a NEVERew European Voices and Existential risk member and Mercator Fellow on International Relations and Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)...
The panel discusses the ELN’s  Guardrails and Self-Assessment (GSA) Framework for Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (EDTs), which was designed to raise awareness and familiarise stakeholders at various levels with the complex interplay between a multitude of technologies, NC3 systems, and nuclear weapons decision-making.focus on an ELN project looking into the interaction between nuclear weapons and new technologies.
 
In this episode’s “Turn Back The Clock” segment, Jane is joined by Julia Berghofer, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Leadership Network. I, who's talks about a previous time when a major nuclear armed state adopted a systematic approach to reducing some of the key risks that might come up when nuclear weapons intersect with new technologies.n light of the Biden Administration’s decision to undertake a failsafe review of the United States’ nuclear command, control, and communications systems, Julia provides a history of nuclear failsafe reviews, and what’s changed since the United States undertook its first such review in the early 1990s.
 
And finally, in “In The Debrief”, Jane and Edan reflect on the  a really interesting the episode and share, sharing their key takeaways and favourite moments. . They talk about Héloïse’s point around France not having an integrated understanding of EDTs, how Julia shone insight on failsafe reviews and they reflect on how useful it’s been to have such an in-depth this conversation with people from different European countries, providing a more diverse set of insights to see how things actually work and how they actually play out in different parliaments and different governments with different ways of thinking.
 
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