UK PONI Annual Conference 2026

'Allied Anxiety and Nuclear Ambition: Rethinking Proliferation in an Era of Uncertain U.S. Commitments'
Nour Eid 

'On Sub-Strategic Nuclear Deterrence: Strategy, Posture, and Credibility'
Eli Glickman, Centre for Nuclear Strategy and Security, KCL 

'Strengthening European Nuclear Deterrence: Better Leveraging the Arsenals of the UK and France' 
Anandi Sweere, Independent

Moderator: Professor Andrew Futter, University of Leicester

'"Nukes Don't Exist": How Fringe Conspiracies and Information Warfare Threaten Nuclear Deterrence'
Annabel Biggs, AWE 

'Securing the Unsecured: Attacks on Nuclear Facilities'
Ali Alkış, NATO Defense College 

'Drones, Hybrid Pressure and Nuclear Stability: How UAV Intrusions Expose New Vulnerabilities'
Evan Curran-Ross

Moderator: Dr Andrew Leigh, MASS

Keynote address given by Charlotte Nichols MP, Labour co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Nuclear

'What the UK Should Learn from the Franco Nuclear Naissance'
Hugo Clark, Rolls-Royce

'Utilising Am-241 from Legacy Civil Plutonium Stockpiles for Long-Duration Deep-Sea Sensor Networks'
Jack Lines, Cavendish Nuclear 

'The Next Generation: Are UK Schools Reinforcing Nuclear Misconceptions?'
Iden Starfire, UK Ministry of Defence

Moderator: Jeremy Edwards, UKNNL

'Beyond Abstract Assurance: North Korean Nuclear Warfighting and Extended Deterrence'
Sang Hun Seok, University of Cambridge 

'The New Strategic Vulnerability: Critical Material Dependencies in the Emerging Fusion Economy'
Zewelanji Nalwamba, University of Leicester 

'Red Lines in Grey Zones: Russian Nuclear Signalling in the Ukraine War'
Diana Kuznetsova, King's College London

Moderator: Parham Ghobadi, BBC