The Role of Nuclear Weapons in the Twenty-First Century

Dr. Francesca Giovannini is the Executive Director of the Harvard University Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Initiative on Managing the Atom and the Director of the Research Network on Rethinking Nuclear Deterrence. The network was established last year by the Belfer Center and the MacArthur Foundation and has thus far involved over 80 scholars and 15 universities. Giovannini is also an adjunct associate professor of international security at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she teaches a graduate seminar on the role of nuclear weapons in the twenty-first century and a core course on technology and national security. She is also the leading faculty of the Fletcher School Executive Education Programs on emerging technology and international security. Giovannini has served several international organizations. Most recently, she was appointed as a senior policy adviser to the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) to promote the ratification of the treaty among nuclear weapons states, including the United States, China, and Pakistan. Giovannini holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and two master's degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. She has published widely in Nature, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Arms Control Today, the National Interest, the Hill, and The Washington Post. She regularly comments on Italian media on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), nuclear weapons, emerging technologies, and European security issues.