On November 29, SSP held the annual Jack Ruina Nuclear Age Dinner at the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge, MA. The dinner series, endowed by Professor Jack Ruina, former Director of the MIT Security Studies Program (then Defense and Arms Control Studies), features a prominent speaker with special knowledge in nuclear issues. This year’s guest speaker was SSP’s own Vipin Narang, Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science. Narang most recently served as Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy at the Department of Defense, for which he was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service.

SSP Director Taylor M. Fravel joined Narang on stage to facilitate the discussion which included questions from the audience. Narang focused on the emerging nuclear age and the unprecedented challenges we face both in academia and government as the United States confronts multiple revisionist peer nuclear challengers, the demise of formal arms control efforts, nervous allies, and our own transition risks in the modernization program. He described the transition from academia to government, and back, and noted that academics have the opportunity to address fundamental questions in this new nuclear age and to provide fresh insights based in both theory and history. Narang closed with describing SSP’s vision for the Center for Nuclear Security Policy, which aims to be a global research and training hub for both scholars and practitioners as we navigate this new nuclear age.