USA – Project for the Study of the 21st Century

By the end of Donald Trump’s first full day in office, the Washington Post – and much of the rest of the US media – was accusing him not just of lying about the number of people at his own inauguration, but even telling falsehoods about what the weather had been like less than 24 hours earlier.

In Britain, meanwhile, a harassed looking Prime Minister Theresa May was fielding questions on whether the cost of doing a post-Brexit trade deal with America would be forcing the Queen to watch him play golf at Balmoral. Not to mention whether a Royal Navy Trident missile test late last year might have not just failed, but flown in entirely the wrong direction.

When we started PS21 two years ago this month, I’ll admit we never really expected the 21st century to itself accelerate on quite such an offbeat heading. It continues to provide great fodder for discussions, though, so we have no intention of stopping anytime soon. Indeed, we should have some upcoming events in the US to promote in the coming weeks as well.

In the meantime, however, here is my Reuters column from last week on how everything we have seen from the two-month transition suggests that this will be a VERY DIFFERENT PRESIDENCY!

Peter Apps

Global Affairs Columnist, Reuters

Executive Director, PS21

UPCOMING EVENTS

The future of nuclear [non?] proliferation

Tuesday, January 24, 6. 15 p.m.. Kings College London, Strand

From North Korea to Iran, Europe to the South China Sea, nuclear tensions seem on the rise this century. PS21 examines the drivers and technologies that encourage and allow this trend, and asks what – if anything – Western states can do to keep the risks in check.

Peter Apps [moderator] is executive director, PS21 and global affairs columnist, Thomson Reuters.

Cristina Varriale is a Research Analyst with RUSI’s Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Team. She specialises in non-proliferation, deterrence policy and CBRN security. Prior to joining RUSI, she worked in nuclear policy and research with the International Centre for Security Analysis (ICSA) and the British American Security Information Council (BASIC). Cristina holds an MA in Non-proliferation and International Security from King’s College London. She has also been a contributor at IHS Jane’s, and has written on nuclear issues for publications such as the Huffington Post and Prospect Magazine.

David Smart is a former UK civil servant who worked on Counter-Proliferation and Counter-Terrorism, and pioneered the exploitation of Financial Intelligence (FinInt) in these areas. Since leaving government service he has acted as a senior advisor to public and private sector clients on risk and security, with particular emphasis on economic crime and cyber-security.

John Bassett OBE worked for the British foreign service from 1991 to 2010. He was an adviser to the UK delegation during the final phase of negotiations on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and has 25 years of experience in various aspects of counterproliferation and arms control.

Paul Ingram is Executive Director of BASIC, responsible for developing its strategy to help reduce global nuclear dangers through disarmament and collaborative non-proliferation. Paul has authored a number of BASIC’s reports and briefings covering a variety of nuclear and non-nuclear issues since 2002. Paul has an extensive media experience and hosted a weekly peak-time talk show on IRINN (Iranian domestic TV News in Farsi) addressing issues relevant to global security 2007-2012. He also taught systems approaches on the flagship Top Management Programme at the UK government’s National School of Government 2006-2012.

Wednesday 8th February 2017, 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm GMT

It may be hard to believe, but it is now two years since PS21 launched itself on an unsuspecting world. Since then, the 21st century has swerved thrown up no shortage of unexpected developments, but we are proud to say that – unlike the Western political consensus or establishment – PS21 has not just survived but thrived.