{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Iranian Studies","slug":"new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694","podcast_index_feed_id":6707694,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/NBNK4310987155","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/009720be-8e2e-11ee-8bc9-6bbc6420e78e/image/32ca5502b9ad911a9e8d05d229de3bef.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":120,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork","last_synced_at":"2026-06-04T18:17:45.742387+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694"},"episode":{"title":"Tristan A. Volpe, \"Leveraging Latency: How the Weak Compel the Strong with Nuclear Technology\" (Oxford UP, 2023)","slug":"tristan-a-volpe-leveraging-latency-how-the-weak-compel-the-strong-with-nuclear-technology-oxford-up-2023","published_at":"2024-12-08T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694/tristan-a-volpe-leveraging-latency-how-the-weak-compel-the-strong-with-nuclear-technology-oxford-up-2023","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK7191115776.mp3?updated=1733520892","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK7191115776.mp3?updated=1733520892","summary":"Over the last seven decades, some states successfully leveraged the threat of acquiring atomic weapons to compel concessions from superpowers. For many others, however, this coercive gambit failed to work. When does nuclear latency--the technical capacity to build the bomb--enable states to pursue effective coercion? In Leveraging Latency: How the Weak Compel the Strong with Nuclear Technology (Oxford UP, 2023), Tristan A. Volpe argues that having greater capacity to build weaponry doesn't translate to greater coercive advantage. Volpe finds that there is a trade-off between threatening proliferation and promising nuclear restraint. States need just enough bomb-making capacity to threaten proliferation but not so much that it becomes too difficult for them to offer nonproliferation assurances. The boundaries of this sweet spot align with the capacity to produce the fissile material at the heart of an atomic weapon. To test this argument, Volpe includes comparative case studies of four countries that leveraged latency against superpowers: Japan, West Germany, North Korea, and Iran. Volpe identifies a generalizable mechanism--the threat-assurance trade-off--that explains why more power often makes compellence less likely to work. Volpe proposes a framework that illuminates how technology shapes broader bargaining dynamics and helps to refine policy options for inhibiting the spread of nuclear weapons. As nuclear technology continues to cast a shadow over the global landscape, Leveraging Latency systematically assesses its coercive utility. Our guest today is Tristan Volpe, an Assistant Professor in the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School and a nonresident fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Our…","meta_description":"Over the last seven decades, some states successfully leveraged the threat of acquiring atomic weapons to compel concessions from superpowers. For many ot…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4144,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694/episodes/tristan-a-volpe-leveraging-latency-how-the-weak-compel-the-strong-with-nuclear-technology-oxford-up-2023/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-iranian-studies-6707694/tristan-a-volpe-leveraging-latency-how-the-weak-compel-the-strong-with-nuclear-technology-oxford-up-2023.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}