Nuclear Weapons and Emerging Technologies
The rapid integration of emerging and disruptive technologies into nuclear decision-making is introducing new and poorly understood risks. Advances in artificial intelligence, cyber capabilities, and data systems are becoming increasingly entangled with nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3), reshaping how information is processed, decisions are made, and crises unfold. While these technologies may enhance speed and situational awareness, they also risk compressing decision-making timelines and introducing new pathways to miscalculation and unintended escalation.
Staff Contacts
The ELN’s Nuclear Weapons and Emerging Technologies Programme addresses these challenges by analysing how technological change is transforming nuclear risk, and by developing practical, policy-relevant solutions. It focuses on the risks arising from human-machine interaction, automation bias, and system vulnerabilities, while identifying opportunities to strengthen resilience and safeguards within nuclear decision-making systems.
Through cutting-edge research, collaborative projects, and sustained engagement with policymakers and practitioners, the programme translates complex technical issues into actionable recommendations. Leveraging ELN’s multinational network and partnerships, it works to raise awareness, close critical knowledge gaps, and drive the adoption of risk reduction measures, helping ensure that technological innovation does not outpace the safeguards needed to prevent nuclear catastrophe.
Project Publications
Event
The European Leadership Network at the 2026 NPT Review Conference
Building on our work throughout the review cycle, join the ELN for two state-sponsored side events at the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, United Nations, New York.
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Report
Towards a better understanding of human bias in nuclear decision-making and its interaction with emerging and disruptive technologies
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Video
From Risk to Reduction: Practical steps for safer nuclear systems
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Commentary
The NPT can’t ignore emerging technologies anymore
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Commentary
Why states should remain in the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention: humanitarian and security imperatives
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