It is a great honor to sign an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA’s mission could not be more aligned with that of the Oppenheimer Project, and J. Robert Oppenheimer’s values and goals – both on the goal of reducing and eliminating threats from nuclear weapons and expanding the peaceful uses of nuclear science.
Nuclear Energy has a unique place in the world: it is too important for politics. The IAEA is one of the organizations that continues active diplomacy under all circumstances – independent of military actions, sanctions, and disputes about politics and policy. J. Robert Oppenheimer and his peers such as Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi always knew this and our main mission is to make these principles of cooperation come alive in today’s world.
I enjoyed participating in the first-ever IAEA Stakeholder Engagement Conference, where I spoke at several events from the perspective of a financial stakeholder in nuclear projects, both as a private sector investor and among growing interest from philanthropists in supporting the expansion of peaceful uses of nuclear power.
I have always embraced the concept and practice of stakeholder engagement but came away from the conference with renewed enthusiasm. I believe that creating a path to come around a table, to meet people where they are, to have a true dialogue is the antidote to the risks and threats we all feel are endemic in modern society.
Being in the same room with those on the “other side” can help break barriers. I have often tried to strike a bold and non-politically correct idea: we need more discussion on nuclear matters between the US, China, and Russia. This discussion would NOT mean we automatically endorse each other’s policies, politics, or military actions. It means we cannot wait until we have a perfect peace – I don’t think we can achieve true peace without it.
The IAEA makes this kind of dialogue their mission. But as a non-state, private citizen – do I and my small organization have any right to advocate as well? Yes, we do – we all have the right to advocate for peace instead of world-ending violence. And it sure helps to be officially aligned with the IAEA.
Something I’ve heard many times when calling for more cooperation around nuclear and AI threats is: “That’s impossible, you can’t encourage discussion between these three enemies”. But I submit a small counterexample. China’s CNNC and Russia’s Rosatom were speakers at the IAEA stakeholder summit. With me informally representing the US, we can already see the green shoots of dialogue emerging in the photo below.
