Name: Edward Turbek

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, International Nuclear Disarmament

Date of Fieldwork: February 18, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Lynn Rusten – NTI

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On Friday, the 18th of February, my group and I were ecstatic to talk with Lynn Rusten. Lynn Rusten currently holds the position of Vice President, Global Nuclear Policy Program at The Nuclear Threat Initiative, also known as NTI. She has also served as the senior director for arms control and nonproliferation on the White House National Security Council staff.

My collage and me asked her about many different topics in the nuclear disarmament field. One of the topics that we talked to her about was the tactical use of Nuclear Weapons. For those who don’t know, Nuclear Weapons are very powerful and as a result of this cannot be used strategically against soldiers and instead are meant to be used against civilians. When we asked her about this, she mentioned something that stood out to me. What she said that stood out to me was that the military is not fans of nuclear weapons and that they don’t see them as practical instruments of war, but only useable as deterrents.