Gray naval military vessels from the US, Australia, Japan, and South Korea sail in formation on a deep blue ocean. The sky is mostly clear and blue with a few thin clouds just on the horizon.
Naval vessels of the United States, Australia, Japan, and South Korea sail in formation as part of Excercise Talisman Sabre. Source: U.S. Pacific Fleet

The virtual seminar will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. (E.T.)

In 2021, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States announced the creation of a new trilateral military arrangement, AUKUS. In its first phase, Australia will buy several used US nuclear-powered submarines in the 2030s, and in the 2040s acquire eight new design nuclear submarines from the UK. Plans include joint work on cyberwarfare, undersea and hypersonic weapons capabilities, and militarization of artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. This presentation will report on the many concerns raised about AUKUS in Australia from cost, to the impact on First Nations, Australian universities, the push for autonomous and AI weapon technologies, the arms trade, and the sharpening of regional and global tensions that raise the risks of war. It also will suggest opportunities for transnational solidarity with Australian activists mobilizing against AUKUS.

About the speaker: Ray Acheson is an organizer and writer, and a visiting researcher with Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security. They are Director of Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament program of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, for which they provide analysis about and advocacy to international diplomatic forums on disarmament and demilitarization. Ray served on the steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons from 2008 to 2024 and is active in coalitions and campaigns against weapons, the global arms trade, and war. They are author of “Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy” and “Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages.”