Lillian Post is a junior global affairs and peace studies major from Buffalo, New York. This summer, thanks to the Keough School, she attended a major conference on AI and nuclear weapons in Rome. Co-sponsors included the school and its Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
Lillian co-organized a student project on nuclear disarmament with the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, which is housed in the Keough School's Kroc Institute and directed by Keough School faculty member Gerard Powers. She was also a student in Powers' summer Rome course on Catholic approaches to war and peace.
Young people today have been spared the burden of living under the immediate threat of nuclear war, as memories of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and the Cuban Missile Crisis grow more distant with each year. As a result, many have become less engaged with the issue of nuclear weapons, relying on the false sense of security promised by nuclear deterrence. Yet from these moments of crisis emerged some of the world's most influential peace movements and scientific collaborations
Now, at a time when the world sits on the brink of profound nuclear risk and autonomous technologies are being rapidly integrated into lethal targeting systems, these same actors are coming together once again to form the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on AI and Nuclear War, calling on a new generation of peacemakers to breathe fresh life into the work they began.
I was fortunate to attend this group’s conference this past summer as a student co-organizer of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network’s Project on Revitalizing Catholic Engagement on Nuclear Disarmament and as a student in Professor Gerard Powers’ summer course on Catholic approaches to war and peace. After this experience, I left Rome with the conviction that nuclear disarmament should be approached through a hopeful and cross-disciplinary lens, especially as the issue relates to the mobilization of young people.
The assembly (co-sponsored in part by the Keough School and its Kroc Institute) took place at Borgo Laudato Si’ in the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo from July 14-16. It convened Nobel laureates, religious leaders and representatives from arms control groups and AI companies. Participants discussed the state of nuclear policy in light of AI developments, and how to move forward. Ultimately, the assembly produced the Rome Declaration, demanding strict human control over AI and the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
Although the conference centered on the growing risks that artificial intelligence poses to nuclear decision-making, it also returned repeatedly to a different question: Who will be responsible for confronting those risks over the coming decades? Discussions about AI quickly became discussions about the next generation, since today’s students and young professionals will inherit both the technologies reshaping warfare and the responsibility of governing them.
What struck me most was that there was no consensus on a single way to engage young people. Some participants emphasized the need to communicate the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war, while others argued that the better approach is to invite young people to the table, listen to what matters most to them, and empower them to motivate their own generation on their own terms. The debate reinforced something I had begun to recognize through my own work in nuclear disarmament: Young people are unlikely to engage with this issue simply because they are told they should. They need an entry point that makes the issue relevant to the questions they are already asking.
The conference’s defining characteristic was its spirit of cross-disciplinary and interreligious collaboration. Physicists, physicians, AI experts, diplomats, ethicists, peacebuilders and religious leaders all approached the issue of nuclear weapons with the shared conviction that no single discipline can address the growing risks posed by nuclear weapons and emerging technologies by itself; but each sector can contribute to the challenges challenges of AI integration and nuclear deterrence.
I believe the same principle applies to revitalizing youth engagement in disarmament. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for inspiring the next generation. A student studying medicine, computer science, theology, engineering or global affairs will each arrive at this issue through different experiences and motivations. Rather than relying on fear, organizations should meet young people where they are: through the disciplines they study, the platforms they use to communicate, and the questions they are already asking about the future.
My own experience with the Catholic Peacebuilding Network has shown me how powerful one of these entry points can be. My interest in Catholic social teaching and peacebuilding first drew me to questions of nuclear disarmament, giving me a way to approach an issue that can otherwise feel distant or highly technical. Through the CPN’s Project on Revitalizing Catholic Engagement on Nuclear Disarmament, I have been able to connect those interests to conversations about nuclear policy, deterrence, and the future of warfare. Working alongside students and scholars from different backgrounds has shown me that my perspective is not the only way into this conversation, and that is exactly what makes interdisciplinary engagement so valuable.
The future of nuclear disarmament will be shaped by young people who bring new disciplines, experiences and questions to the table.
Today’s challenges are fundamentally different from the Cold War period, when many of these Nobel-winning organizations made their mark on nuclear disarmament, making youth engagement more important than ever. A new technological arms race, requires mobilization and collaboration at new interdisciplinary levels; therefore, the future of disarmament will depend on creating many pathways into the movement rather than convincing every young person with the same message.
Ultimately, what I took away from Rome was not a single answer for how to engage my generation, but a reminder that peacebuilding has always depended on people finding their own ways into a shared cause. The work of nuclear disarmament may have been shaped by the experiences of previous generations, but its future will be shaped by young people who bring new disciplines, experiences, and questions to the table. Our generation may not carry the lived memory of Hiroshima or the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it will inherit the responsibility of ensuring that those tragedies are never repeated.
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Junior global affairs and peace studies major Mia Clarke, who has also worked with Professor Gerard Powers and the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, shares her experience interning with the Arms Control Association this past summer.
Originally published by at keough.nd.edu on August 24, 2026.