Episode Details

Fabian Hoffmann is a PhD scholar at the Oslo Nuclear Project. His research focuses on the proliferation, deployment and use of "non-nuclear strategic weapons", particularly conventional precision strike capabilities, and their implications for nuclear strategy and wider nuclear weapons policy (e.g. nuclear proliferation and nuclear disarmament). Before joining the University of Oslo, Fabian worked as a research assistant at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). He holds an MA in War Studies from King's College London, UK, and a BA in International Relations from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Nuclear weapons pose an enduring challenge to international security. The Oslo Nuclear Project is a research program, which analyzes nuclear challenges to the international security. The program also educates a new generation of experts on nuclear weapons and international security.  

Chapters:

00:00 Where did your interest in international relations come from?

10:00 Is preventing war a motivation for studying war?

13:00 Being naïve vs being realistic. Is war a part of our nature?

17:00 Should we be exposed more or less to war?

22:23 Where is the knowledge on nuclear weapons located?

24:40 It’s not in Putin’s interest to use nuclear weapons.

29:40 Potential different kinds of nuclear strikes 

32:57 Tactical nuclear weapons vs. strongest conventional weapons

36:00 Nuclear deterrence

37:50 The hierarchy of military units from firing squad to division and corps

39:39 Potential use of tactical nukes in Ukraine?

40:58 NATO would have to get involved if Russia used nukes

50:00 Could Putin potentially escalate from tactical to strategic ICBM’s?

53:42 The current nuclear power balance in the world

57:00 Which countries have nuclear weapons?

58:30 Should Ukraine have kept their nukes, 1994 Budapest memorandun.,

01:03:40 Where is the tacit knowledge on creating nuclear weapons located?

01:11:25 The US can’t produce the F22 Raptor anymore, due to lack of competent people and tacit knowledge

01:15:00 Would we accept new western countries acquiring nuclear weapons? Like Norway?

01:22:50 Mutual Assured Destruction, communications and retaliation

01:29:25 US tracking russian SSBN’s (Sub Surface Ballistic Nuclear subs) in the Atlantic for weeks

01:33:00 How does a nuclear warhead work? 3 different kinds

01:45:25 The Russian Tsar boma, biggest nuclear explosion ever.

01:47:00 Transparency

01:51:00 Iran, Stuxnet, Saudi Arabia and North Korea

02:00:00 Missile defences, the Kinzhal and the US Patriot systems

02:21:21 USS Gerald R. Ford in the Oslo Fjord

02:23:30 F16’s, AIM-120 AMRAAM, should we give them to Ukraine?

02:28:20 How long will the western support for Ukraine last? NATO membership?

02:35:49 UN peacekeeping forces, could they enter Ukraine?

02:42:46 Taiwan and China – the next big conflict? Nuclear risk?

02:50:46 Possible outcomes of Ukraine-Russia conflict