Speakers: Dr. Anna Péczeli (Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Date: 25 June 2025
Speaker Session Summary
SMA hosted a speaker session with Dr. Anna Péczeli(Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) as part of its SMA General Speaker Series.
The renewed era of great power competition has prompted modernization efforts that underscore the need for enhanced risk mitigation, particularly regarding the potential for nuclear conflict. Dr. Péczeli emphasized that while lessons from the Cold War era should inform present-day leadership, Cold War solutions are not fully applicable to today’s risk environment. This is due, in part, to the increasingly multipolar nature of the world and the growing number of states with nuclear capabilities.
Dr. Péczeli defined successful risk reduction as the avoidance of nuclear war, the prevention of an arms race involving nuclear capabilities, and the stabilization of great power relations. She stressed that effective risk reduction depends on the ability of states to cooperate and move beyond zero-sum competitive dynamics.
Such cooperation should involve state-level agreements on which outcomes must be avoided at all costs, as well as on the tools and approaches to be used in reducing risk. Although many states agree that nuclear war is an unacceptable outcome, there is ongoing debate about which risk-reduction tools and strategies are most effective. Additionally, emerging technologies complicate risk reduction efforts by increasing the “fog of war,” making conflict escalation more likely.
It is also important to recognize that risk reduction must occur across multiple domains. As states engage in mitigation strategies, it is likely they will pursue and develop unique asymmetric advantages that further shape the strategic landscape.
Speaker Session Recording
Briefing Materials
Biography: Dr. Anna Péczeli is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She is also an affiliate at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. From 2019 to 2022, Anna was a postdoctoral research fellow at CGSR. Prior to that, she worked at Stanford University: in 2018-2019 she was a visiting postdoctoral research scholar at The Europe Center, and in 2016-2017 she was a Stanton nuclear security fellow at CISAC. In Hungary, she was a senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies (ISDS) at the National University of Public Service, an assistant lecturer at Corvinus University of Budapest, and an adjunct fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs. During her PhD studies, she held a visiting research fellowship at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, and a visiting Fulbright fellowship at the Nuclear Information Project of the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, DC. She earned a PhD degree in International Relations from Corvinus University of Budapest. Her research focuses on U.S. nuclear posture, in particular the changes and continuities in U.S. nuclear strategy since the end of the Cold War. Her research areas also include the future of arms control and strategic risk reduction in a multi-domain environment, extended nuclear deterrence in Europe, and NATO’s defense policy. Anna is a member of the CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues mid-career cadre, the European Defence and Security Network, the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium, and former chair of the Executive Board of the International Student/Young Pugwash group.
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