Ford's 2024 Round-Up
Dr. Christopher Ford • December 31, 2024
With 2024 hours from being over, here’s a handy compilation of my public work product from the last year. As you can see from the list of seven papers or articles and 20 presentations below, it’s been a big year for nuclear weapons policy and arms control topics – but as always there’s a good helping of strategic competition with China.
Keep checking New Paradigms Forum for new material as we move into 2025. And Happy New Year, everyone!
Papers and Articles
- Christopher A. Ford, “Call it by its Name: Communist Chinese Imperialism,” National Institute for Public Policy Occasional Papers, vol. 4, no. 11 (November 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/call-it-by-its-name-communist-chinese-imperialism
- Christopher A. Ford, “The Weaponization of Integrity: How the West’s Enemies Try to Leverage its Ethics Against It,” Defense & Strategic Studies Online [Missouri State University], vol. 1, no. 1 (Autumn 2024), pages 47-65
https://irp.cdn-website.com/ce29b4c3/files/uploaded/DASSO_Volume_1_Issue_1_Ford.pdf
- Christopher A. Ford & Alex Memory, “The Ties that Bind: A Data-Driven Analysis of Oceania’s Dependency on China,” Defense & Strategic Studies Online [Missouri State University], vol. 1, no. 1 (Autumn 2024), pages 5-30
https://irp.cdn-website.com/ce29b4c3/files/uploaded/DASSO_Volume_1_Issue_1_Ford_and_Memory.pdf
- Christopher A. Ford, “Challenges of Deterrence and Security Upon Nuclear Use,” in Project Atom 2024: Intra-War Deterrence in a Two-Peer Environment (CSIS, November 2024), pp. 19-32
- Christopher A. Ford, “Dead or Deferred? Nuclear Arms Control in the Age of Revisionism,” in Aligning Arms Control with the New Security Environment (Livermore, CA: Center for Global Security Research, 2024)
https://irp.cdn-website.com/ce29b4c3/files/uploaded/Ford_in_CGSR_Arms_Control_Book.pdf
- Christopher A. Ford, “The Substructures of Chinese Grand Strategy, and Why Resolute U.S. Engagement Matters,” Commentary, Hoover Institution Press (May 9, 2024)
- Christopher A. Ford, “Nuclear Posture and Nuclear Posturing: A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing China’s Nuclear Weapons Policy,” National Institute for Public Policy Occasional Papers, vol. 4, no. 2 (February 2024)
https://nipp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Vol-4-No-2-final.pdf
Remarks and Presentations
- Christopher A. Ford, “Critiquing the ‘Irreversibility’ of Nuclear Disarmament,” remarks to a CSIS/PONI workshop at Wilton Park, United Kingdom (December 18, 2024),
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/critiquing-the-irreversibility-of-nuclear-disarmament
- Christopher A. Ford, “Nonproliferation, Disarmament, and the New Washington, D.C.,” remarks at Wilton Park, United Kingdom (December 16, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/nonproliferation-disarmament-and-the-new-washington-d-c
- Christopher A. Ford, “Nuclear Latency and its Discontents,” remarks at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (December 13, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/nuclear-latency-and-its-discontents
- Christopher A. Ford, “Deterrence in National Strategy: Critique and Recommendations,” remarks at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (December 11, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/deterrence-in-national-strategy-critique-and-recommendations
- Christopher A. Ford, “Looking Ahead in Nuclear Weapons Policy, Arms Control, and Nonproliferation,” remarks to the European Leadership Network (December 10, 2024)
- Christopher A. Ford, “Recommendations for the Next Nuclear Posture Review,” remarks for a roundtable at the National Defense University (December 6, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/recommendations-for-the-next-nuclear-posture-review
- Christopher A. Ford, “Restoring Strategic Stability in the Euro-Atlantic Area,” remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (December 4, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/restoring-strategic-stability-in-the-euro-atlantic-area
- Christopher A. Ford, “Leveraging Strength into Peace: Arms Control Isn’t (Quite) Dead, and Here’s How to Revive It,” remarks to the Bicameral Bipartisan Member Briefing on Arms Control, Russell Senate Office Building (November 21, 2024)
- Christopher A. Ford, “Threats to NATO Resilience,” remarks to the NATO Resilience Summit, Bratislava, Slovakia (November 12, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/threats-to-nato-resilience
- Christopher A. Ford, “Some Musings on Making Deterrence Policy,” remarks to students at Purdue University (October 16, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/some-musings-on-making-deterrence-policy
- Christopher A. Ford, “Security, Proliferation, and Preserving Sovereign Independence in the Indo-Pacific,” presentation to the Dialogue on the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Hanoi, Vietnam (September 12, 2024)
- Christopher A. Ford, “Russia, China, and the Challenge of Asymmetry in Nuclear Ethics,” presentation to the Forum on Nuclear Strategy, Albuquerque, New Mexico (September 6, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/russia-china-and-the-challenges-of-asymmetry-in-nuclear-ethics
- Christopher A. Ford, “Thinking About China’s Nuclear Weapons Policy,” remarks to an event organized by the National Institute for Deterrence Studies (August 9, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/thinking-about-chinas-nuclear-weapons-policy
- Christopher A. Ford, “Four Warnings About the ‘Dark Quad,’” remarks at a symposium organized by the National Institute for Public Policy (July 23, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/four-warnings-about-the-dark-quad
- Christopher A. Ford, “Equipping Leaders for Strategic Competition Against China’s ‘Leverage Web,’” remarks at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory (July 18, 2024)
- Christopher A. Ford, “New Old Wisdom on Nuclear Deal with Iran,” remarks at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (May 22, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/new-old-wisdom-on-a-nuclear-deal-with-iran
- Christopher A. Ford, “Emerging Technologies and the Nuclear Weapons Arena,” remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (March 28, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/emerging-technologies-and-the-nuclear-weapons-arena
- Christopher A. Ford, “Outbound Investment and China’s ‘Leverage Web,’” remarks at the American Enterprise Institute (February 13, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/outbound-investment-and-chinas-leverage-web
- Christopher A. Ford, “Weaponized Interdependence, U.S. Economic Statecraft, and Chinese Grand Strategy,” remarks at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (February 8, 2024)
- Christopher A. Ford, “Some Thoughts on Targeting, the Law of Armed Conflict, and Morality,” remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (January 12, 2024)
https://www.newparadigmsforum.com/some-thoughts-on-targeting-the-law-of-armed-conflict-and-morality
-- Christopher Ford
Below is an edited version of the prepared text upon which Dr. Ford based his oral comments at a conference on “U.S. Future Options for Deterrence and Arms Control,” in Washington, D.C., on September 29, 2026, sponsored by the Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding of the Geneva Graduate Institute on International and Development Studies.
Below is an edited version of prepared text upon which Professor Ford based his shorter oral remarks on a panel on “Arms Control and Nuclear Risk Reduction” at the India-U.S. Strategic Dialogue held in New Delhi on September 18, 2026, sponsored by MIT’s Center for Nuclear Security Policy and the Observer Research Foundation .
Below follows the prepared text upon which Professor Ford based his remarks to a Defense Department audience near Las Vegas on September 3, 2026.
Below is an edited version of the prepared text upon which Professor Ford based his remarks to a workshop on theater nuclear weaponry sponsored by the Sandia Security Studies Institute at the Sandia National Laboratory on August 31, 2026.
Below appears the text upon which Dr. Ford based his shorter oral remarks on August 6, 2026, to a professional offsite meeting of a team of engineers from a major defense contractor working on conventionally armed precision-strike technologies.
Dr. Ford's article on the conceptual challenges of "tailoring" nuclear deterrence -- and suggesting a more robust and muscular alternative approach -- was published in Missouri State University's journal Defense & Strategic Studies Online (DASSO) in July 2026. You can find DASSO's webpage here , and an online copy of Dr. Ford's article here -- or use the button below to download a PDF. (This paper was also published in the Journal of Policy and Strategy , vol. 6, no 2 (2026), pp. 19-38, and can be found here .)
INHR published Professor Ford's latest essay on Artificial Intelligence and nuclear weapons on July 7, 2026. You can find the essay on INHR's website here , or read the text of his comments below.
War on the Rocks published Dr. Ford's essay "A New Force Posture Concept for Europeanizing Extended Nuclear Deterrence" on June 29, 2026.
Below is the text upon which Dr. Ford based his shorter remarks to a meeting with the class of Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) Scholars for 2026.
Below is the text of Dr. Ford's remarks at a dinner event in London on June 16, 2026.