Professor Andrew Futter

Professor Andrew Futter is an expert in contemporary global nuclear politics, with a particular specialism on emerging technologies and their impact on nuclear strategy, deterrence, stability and arms control.

Professor Futter’s work plays a key role in shaping the climate of ideas around nuclear policy, and has been used by governments, global civil society groups and professional organisations seeking to raise awareness of and better combat nuclear risks.

Professor Futter joined Leicester in 2012, after completing his PhD at the University of Birmingham.  He was previously a visiting fellow at: the Centre for Arms Control and Nonproliferation in Washington D.C., the James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Studies in Monterey California, and at the Norwegian Nobel Peace Institute in Oslo. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the UK Project on Nuclear Issues.

Professor Futter’s research focusses on the contemporary challenges posed by nuclear weapons and nuclear technologies.  His work spans all aspects of global nuclear order from deterrence, strategy and arms control to norms, disarmament, and the links between existential risks, nuclear energy and climate change.  He is also passionate about nuclear education.

Professor Futter is currently leading the 5-year European Research Council funded “Towards a Third Nuclear Age” research project. This project seeks to examine the technological, geopolitical and normative shifts that are transforming the current global nuclear order.

He was previously PI on the ESRC Future Research Leader’s grant, “Cyber threats and nuclear weapons”.

He has published widely on nuclear politics, including the books:

• Ballistic Missile Defense and US National Security Policy
• The Politics of Nuclear Weapons (1^st ed)
• Threats to Euro-Atlantic Security
• Reassessing the Revolution in Military Affairs
• The United Kingdom and the Future of Nuclear Weapons
• Hacking the Bomb
• The Politics of Nuclear Weapons (2^nd ed)
• Emerging technologies and Euro-Atlantic Security

• “Accommodating Nutopia: The nuclear ban treaty and the developmental interests of global south countries”, Review of International Studies, (2023), (with Olamide Samuel).
• “Cyber threats and nuclear vulnerabilities”, chapter in Christopher Hobbs, Sarah Tzinieris & Sukesh Aghara (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Nuclear Security, (Oxford University Press: 2023). (With Jason Harris).
• “Mapping the emerging strategic stability and arms control landscape”, Toda Peace Institute Policy Brief No.133, (July 2022).
• “Deterrence, disruptive technology and disarmament in the Third Nuclear Age”, Hiroshima Organisation for Global Peace, (April 2022).
• "Disruptive technology and nuclear risks: What’s new and what matters", Survival, 64:1 (2022), pp.99-120.
• “Is the US ready for the Third Nuclear Age?”, The National Interest, (February 2022)
• "Strategic conventional weapons and the onset of a Third Nuclear Age", European Journal of International Security, 6:3 (2021), pp.257-277 (with Benjamin Zala).
• “Nuclear war, public health, the COVID-19 epidemic: Lessons for prevention, preparation, mitigation, and education”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 76:5 (2020), pp.271-276 (with Richard Lilford, Samuel Watson and Peter Chilton).
• "A perfect storm? Coronavirus, Brexit, the Integrated Review, Scottish Independence and the future of Trident", The RUSI Journal, 165: 5-6, (2020) pp.92-99 (with Bleddyn Bowen).
• “Explaining the nuclear challenges posed by emerging and disruptive technology”, EU Non-proliferation and Disarmament Papers No.73, (March 2021).
• “The risks posed by emerging technologies to nuclear deterrence”, chapter in Beyza Unal et al. Perspectives on nuclear deterrence in the 21st century, (Chatham House: April 2020).
•  “Emerging non-nuclear technology and the future of the global nuclear order”, in Bard Nikolas Steen & Olav Njolstad, Nuclear Disarmament: A Critical Assessment, (Routledge: 2019)
• "Cyber semantics: Why we should retire the latest buzzword in security studies", Journal of Cyber Policy, 3:2 (2018), pp.201-216.
• “Reports of the death of arms control have been greatly exaggerated”, War on the Rocks, (4 October 2018) (with Alex Bell).
•  “The proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction”, chapter in Hugo Meijer & Marco Wyss (eds.), The Handbook of European Armed Forces, (Oxford University Press, 2018).
• "Democracy versus deterrence: nuclear weapons and political integrity", Politics, 38:4 (2017), pp.500-513 (with Stephen Cooke).
• "Questioning the Holy Trinity: why the US nuclear triad still makes sense", Comparative Strategy, 35:4 (2016) 246-259 (with Heather Williams).
• “The danger of using cyber-attacks to counter nuclear threats”, Arms Control Today, (July/August 2016) 
• “War Games redux? Cyber threats, US-Russian strategic stability and new challenges for nuclear security and arms control”, European Security, 24:2 (2016), pp.163-180.
• “The double-edged sword: US command and control modernization”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, (29 June 2016) 
•  “Cyber threats and nuclear weapons: new questions for command and control, security and strategy”, RUSI Occasional Papers, (June 2016)
• “Chinese Nuclear Thinking; Antecedents, Current Challenges and Future Trajectories”, chapter in M Kouhi-Esfahani (ed.), Nuclear Politics in Asia, (Basingstoke, Routledge: 2016) (with James Johnson).
• “Plus ca Change? Reflecting on Obama’s Nuclear Agenda”, chapter in M Bentley & J Holland (eds.), The Obama Doctrine: Legacy and Continuity in US Foreign Policy, (Basingstoke, Routledge: 2016) (with Jason Douglas)
• “Trident replacement and UK nuclear deterrence requirements in an uncertain future”, RUSI Journal, 160:5 (2015) pp.60-66
• “Iranian nuclear aspirations and strategic balancing in the Middle East: challenging conventional wisdom”, Middle East Policy, XXII:2 (2015) pp.80-93 (with Stephen Ellis)
• "Coordinating the arm swing with the pivot: nuclear deterrence, stability and US strategy in the Asia-Pacific", The Pacific Review, 28:3 (2015) pp.367-390 (with Ben Zala)
• “Advanced US conventional weapons and nuclear abolition: why the Obama plan won’t work”, The Nonproliferation Review, 20:1 (2013) pp.107-122 (with Ben Zala).
• “A sustainable approach to nuclear zero: breaking the nuclear-conventional link”, Oxford Research Group, (October 2013) (with Ben Zala)
• “US Nuclear Policy: from Primacy to Sufficiency” chapter in M Bentley & J Holland (eds.) US Foreign Policy after the War on Terror, (Basingstoke, Routledge: 2013)
• “The elephant in the room: US ballistic missile defence under Barack Obama”, Defense & Security Analysis, 28:1 (2012) pp.3-16.
• “Obama’s Nuclear Policy in a Changing World”, chapter in N Kitchen (ed.), The US after Unipolarity, LSE Ideas special report, (November 2011).
• “Sensitive rationalization or overlooked expansion? Obama’s new missile defence plan for Europe”, BASIC Getting to Zero Papers, No13 (1st March 2010).

Professor Futter is interested in supervising doctoral projects looking at contemporary nuclear weapons issues.

He currently supervises the following PhD students:

• Ludovica Castelli - The nuclear proliferation complex in the Middle East
• Jack O’Doherty - The evolution of US nuclear counterforce doctrine
• Katie Titherington - Roosevelt, Truman and the psychology of dropping the bomb
• Jim Howe - US nuclear power for space propulsion
• Sam Canter - Comparing the three US military offset strategies
• Anu Damale - Responsible uses of emerging technology in space
• Deden Habibi - Indonesia and space

Professor Futter is a regular contributor to global print and online media, and has appeared on radio and TV, including in the documentaries “War Factories”, Channel 4’s “Fortress Britain”, and “Nuclear Armageddon” on BBC2.