The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs is home to many notable names, but if you haven't heard of Dr. Rachel Whitlark, you will soon. She is an Associate Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. This past month, she has stormed the media describing her latest book and archival research on how past US administrations approached the Chinese nuclear program. 

Dr. Whitlark was first featured in a Book Nook series of Bridging the Gap's Youtube channel promoting her new book, All Options on the Table: Leaders, Preventive War, and Nuclear Proliferation. The video, also featured on the Duck of Minera's Book Nook series, is of Dr. Whitlark in her home office talking about the book and her answers to the question "when is preventive war chosen to counter nuclear proliferation?"

Following this video, Dr. Whitlark recorded an episode on the Global Dispatches Podcast with host Mark Leon Goldberg. The conversation shed light on the first nuclear security and arms control talks between the United States and China since 2019, which occurred earlier in November of this year alongside the annual APEC Summit.

In the episode, Dr. Whitlark opens with "… in a world of horrible news, and often horrible nuclear news, it’s quite a sea change to have even a tiny glimmer of some positive signs in the nuclear portfolio. And I would put even the little that we know so far about these recent discussions sort of in that category of potentially good news."

The conversation further highlights some of the historical insight from her recent book, and "is instructive for understanding why China may be seeking to expand its nuclear program today."

We are ecstatic about Dr. Whitlark’s accomplishments and believe this APSIA feature is just one more accolade to add to her list.