For decades the global nuclear energy industry was a highly diverse and vibrant market. Today the situation has changed with the global nuclear energy market becoming increasingly dominated by the state-owned companies of Russia and China. Both countries are continuing to step up efforts to strengthen their position in the global markets, especially in critical regions such as Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. Nearly two-thirds of the new reactors under construction worldwide are using designs from China and Russia. This development has heightened concerns about a weakening of nuclear governance standards, as well as potential political, economic and international security implications for the United States, Europe and its allies.
This panel discussion will focus on the broader issues of geopolitics in the nuclear energy industry, examine the case study of the Russian-built Astravets nuclear power plant in Belarus, and discuss what the United States, together with its friends and allies, could do to mitigate the growing dominance of Russian and Chinese nuclear energy exports.
Panel speakers: Albinas Zananavičius
Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania
Giselle Donnelly
Resident Fellow, Defense and National Security, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Charles Doran
Andrew W. Mellon Professor of International Relations, Director of the Global Theory and History Program, and Director of Canadian Studies, Johns Hopkins SAIS
Moderator: Iulia-Sabina Joja
DAAD Post-Doctoral Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS
with first respondent: Benjamin Schmitt
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard University
