As the nuclear threat heats up, we sit down with Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control & International.
As the under secretary of state for arms control and international security from 2021 to 2024, Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins oversaw three bureaus: Arms Control, Deterrence and Stability; International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN); and Political-Military Affairs. In May 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken named Jenkins, the first African American to serve as an under secretary of state, as the department’s lead on implementation of AUKUS, the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Jenkins served as special envoy for cooperative threat reduction programs in the ISN bureau from July 2009 until January 2017. She coordinated U.S. government efforts alongside international programs that prevent non-state actors from developing chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. She was the State Department’s lead for the President’s Nuclear Security Summits and the U.S. representative to the G7 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, and she led diplomatic efforts to promote the Global Health Security Agenda. She was the 2016 ISN nominee for the Secretary of State’s Award for Excellence.
From its inception in 2017 until April 2021, Jenkins was the founder, executive director, and board chair of Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security. From 2005 to 2009, she was the program officer for U.S. foreign and security policy at the Ford Foundation. She also served as counsel on the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission).
Jenkins was a legal adviser to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. She has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, George Washington University, the University of Virginia, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Minnesota. Jenkins designed and led arms control simulations at Stanford University. Jenkins is a retired U.S. Naval Reserve officer.
This event is part of the Global Security Forum Series 2025 (GSF2025).
The theme of GSF2025 is Unraveling Order. We will explore the edge of uncertainty – the threats that emerge when norms collapse and the opportunities that arise when power shifts. GSF2025 gathers the world’s top leaders and minds to ask: when certainty collapses, what comes next?
GSF2025 is evolving to reach a growing number of attendees and to host more international and national leaders than ever before. GSF has expanded from its traditional form of a one-day gathering into a series of over 10 in-person and virtual events held throughout Fall 2025. Learn more and find the full schedule here.