Call for papers: "New Dimensions of Strategic Stability: Technological and Institutional Aspects" (No. 2 2027)

In recent years, the institutional foundation of strategic stability has undergone significant dismantling. Landmark agreements such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and the Open Skies Treaty have been terminated. The fate of the New START treaty, currently suspended, remains highly uncertain. Consequently, this breakdown engenders a critical deficit in transparency and predictability.

Cold War-era arms control architectures were predicated almost exclusively on the bilateral interaction between the Soviet Union and the United States. In the contemporary international system, the People's Republic of China (PRC) plays an increasingly pivotal role, actively modernizing its nuclear triad while leveraging a strategy of "catch-up development." Furthermore, it is imperative to account for the expanding military capabilities of other nuclear-armed states, notably the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as India and Pakistan, whose bilateral relations are characterized by persistent conflict. Against the backdrop of escalating systemic turbulence, the absence of overarching regulatory frameworks may incentivize destabilizing maneuvers within the "gray zone," a hallmark of contemporary hybrid warfare.

Compounding this institutional vacuum is the rapid advancement of disruptive technologies that fundamentally alter the calculus of nuclear deterrence. The advent of highly maneuverable hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) and advanced cruise missiles significantly degrades the efficacy of conventional missile defense systems. Concurrently, these capabilities critically compress both the missile flight time and the corresponding window for political decision-making.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms into early warning and nuclear command and control architectures introduces existential risks. The sheer velocity of algorithmic responses, coupled with the inherent opacity of neural networks, threatens to trigger inadvertent and catastrophic escalation during a crisis, effectively removing human oversight from the decision-making loop. Addressing these multifaceted challenges necessitates a profound reconceptualization of existing paradigms to forge novel models of international interaction amidst pervasive institutional and technological uncertainty.

Submission deadline: November 15, 2026.