Youth Fusion Podcast Youth Fusion

Jannis is currently a PhD Student and Researcher at the esteemed University of Hamburg in Germany. He was also a Young Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, and he holds a Masters in International Conflict Studies. His main areas of focus encompass nuclear disarmament and international peace and security, and what's truly remarkable is that despite being in the early stages of his career, and a youth,  Jannis has already gained invaluable experience within the field, including with the United Nations and other international arenas.

Recently, Jannis wrote an exceptional paper on Feminist Foreign Policy, with a specific emphasis on Nuclear Weapons. When Youth Fusion came across his work, we were immediately interested, and knew we had to delve deeper into his research. Over the past couple of years, we've had the pleasure of crossing paths with Jannis at various conferences, and today, we finally have the opportunity to hear about his incredibly intriguing findings thus far.

Welcome to Youth Fusion: Peace Out! In the very first episode, Vanda chats with two young professionals from the nuclear disarmament & security fields: Aigerim Seitenova & Michaela Higgins Sørensen. Together, they talk about the struggles young individuals in the field have to face, but also why it is a field absolutely worth staying in. For more information about this podcast mini-series, visit Youth Fusion's website.

Gabriela Maier Tolic, a program assistant at Youth Fusion, sits down with Dr. John Burroughs, who is a senior analyst for the New York City-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP). From February 1999 to September 2020 he was the Executive Director. Dr. Burroughs has represented LCNP in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meetings and negotiations on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons and was a member of the Marshall Islands’ legal team in its nuclear disarmament cases in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Beyond this, he taught international law as an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School. He has a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. from Harvard University.

Welcome to the second episode of the Youth Fusion podcast series on nuclear weapons in international law. This podcast series was established to help those interested in finding out more about nuclear weapons issues and how they are regulated in international law by providing an overview of the status of international law connected to nuclear weapons. This episode explores questions surrounding the threat and use of nuclear weapons in international law.

Gabriela Maier Tolic, a program assistant at Youth Fusion, sits down with Amela Skiljan, a PhD Candidate at the University of Bremen and Alyn Ware, the Global Coordinator of PNND. Amela Skiljan studied law in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She holds a masters in International and European law (LL.M.Eur) from the University of Bremen and she is currently writing her PhD thesis. Beyond that, she is the Deputy Chairwoman of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) in Germany, a board member of IALANA and a Council Member of the International Peace Bureau. Alyn Ware is a peace educator and nuclear disarmament consultant representing various organizations, such as Aotearoa (New Zeeland Lawyers for Peace), the World Future Council and the Basel Peace Office.

Mélusine Lebret, a Youth Fusion intern, recently sat down with Almudena Azcárate Ortega, from the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. Almudena is the research assistant for the Space Security Program, as well as for the Weapons of Mass Destruction & Other Strategic Weapons Program, at UNIDIR.

In our chat with Almudena, we covered topics from her backgrounds to the current state of the research on outer space security and the actions that are being taken to pursue the disarmament movement in orbit and beyond. We began with a discussion around UNIDIR’s mission in outer space security, the most difficult space norms it aims at tackling and how its achievements help question the 1967 Outer Space Treaty for the better. As the conversation led to analyzing the effects of counter space acts on the militarisation of space, we focused on the breakthroughs UNIDIR’s Space Dossiers had on the subject.

Welcome to the new Youth Fusion podcast series on nuclear weapons in international
law. As an advocate in the field of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, one often
comes across legal references such as the obligation for disarmament in Art. 6 of the
NPT, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Sometimes it can be
challenging to understand how the treaties and agreements on nuclear weapons work
together in the system of international law and why it is so difficult to enforce them,
especially, as someone without a background in law. Therefore, this podcast series was
established to help anyone interested in finding out more about nuclear weapons issues
and how they are regulated in international law by providing an overview of the status of
international law connected to nuclear weapons. We invited a number of experts on
these questions to share their knowledge with us and we hope that what you learn here
will help you to become better at using relevant and applicable international law in your
work and thus make you more effective in your nuclear non-proliferation and
disarmament activism.


In this first episode, Gabriela Maier Tolic, a program assistant at Youth Fusion, talks
about the fundamental principles of international law with Prof. Nick Grief, who is an
Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Kent, with a specialization in international
law and human rights, and has help many positions within this field.