Dr Lyndon Burford

Lyndon Burford is a Visiting Research Associate at the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS), where he studies the politics, technologies and theories of nuclear disarmament, deterrence, arms control and risk. Lyndon is a blockchain adviser on the New Technologies for Peace working group, part of the Vatican’s COVID-19 Commission. From 2018-2020, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at CSSS, helping to develop options to advance multilateral nuclear disarmament. His PhD thesis looked at the relationship between national identity and nuclear disarmament policy in Canada and New Zealand. In 2015, he was an advisor to the New Zealand delegation at the 2015 NPT Review Conference and in 2011, he won the McElvany Prize from the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey, for his essay on a user-pays model for nuclear risk reduction.

From 2009-18, Lyndon was a New Zealand academic representative on the WMD study group of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific. From 2009-15, he was a member of the Pacific Forum CSIS Young Leaders programme. He has a PhD in International Relations from the University of Auckland, an MA in Political Science from the University of Canterbury (NZ), and a BA in Russian Studies from the University of Otago. In addition to blockchain and nuclear policy work, Lyndon is passionate about film, having studied film history and theory. He has worked on studio films like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the BBC’s Lost World and has co-produced several short documentaries and educational videos. Lyndon speaks French, as well as conversational Russian and Spanish.

Research

• Blockchain and global security
• Nuclear disarmament
• Nuclear deterrence in the 21st century
• Nuclear risk and risk education

Lyndon is interested in the political, technological and theoretical dynamics that link nuclear, disarmament, deterrence, arms control and risk. He is currently exploring how blockchain technology could create opportunities to increase international cooperation on global security challenges.

Publications

Book chapters

• “Australia, New Zealand and the Cuban Missile Crisis” (with Laura Stanley), chapter in The Nuclear Crisis of 1962: Inaugural Crisis of the Age of Global Nuclear Vulnerability?, ed. Benoît Pelopidas [currently under peer review with Johns Hopkins University Press].
• New Zealand and Disarmament: Where National and Global Interests Converge (with Kate Dewes), chapter in Small States and the Changing Global Order: New Zealand Faces the Future, ed. Anne-Marie Brady (Cham: Springer, 2019).

Research reports

• The Trust Machine: Blockchain in Nuclear Disarmament and Arms Control Verification, Centre for Science & Security Studies, King’s College London, October 2020.
• Meeting in the Middle: Opportunities for Progress on Disarmament in the NPT, edited by Lyndon Burford, Oliver Meier, Elisabeth Suh, and Heather W Williams. Centre for Science and Studies, King’s College London / SWP Berlin, December 2019.

Journal articles

• No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: A Nuclear-User-Pays Model of International Security, The Nonproliferation Review 19, no. 2 (2012). [Winner of the McElvany Nonproliferation Prize for 2011].
• Principled Pragmatism: Non-Governmental Influence on New Zealand Nuclear Disarmament Advocacy 1995–2000, Global Change, Peace & Security 23, no. 1 (2011).

Commentaries

• Could Blockchain Technology Help Advance Nuclear Disarmament?  Medium / International Affairs blog, Chatham House, February 19, 2021. 
• Can Nuclear Disarmament Strengthen Global Security? Building a Cycle of Trust, New Zealand Centre for Global Studies, January 20, 2020.
• A Global Commission on Military Nuclear Risks, European Leadership Network, June 25, 2019.
• Sidetrack or Kickstart? How to Respond to the US Proposal on Nuclear Disarmament (with Oliver Meier and Nick Ritchie), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 19, 2019.
• The Fight to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, Wars, Laws +Humanity, New Zealand Red Cross IHL Magazine, 2015.

Video

• The Global Nuclear Arsenal 2020 (60 seconds), produced in collaboration with the Nuclear Knowledges research programme, Sciences Po, Paris, August 5, 2020.