A newly appointed Biden-Harris administration official at the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration previously advocated for “queering nuclear weapons” as part of a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda.
Sneha Nair was appointed as a special assistant in February 2024 having “led research on insider threat mitigation, bias in human reliability programs, and implications of emerging technologies” in previous roles.
In June 2023, Nair co-authored an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists which called for queer theory to be used in shaping nuclear policy. She argued that DEI policies were “essential for creating effective nuclear policy” and described queer theory as “a field of study, closely related to feminist theory, that examines sex- and gender-based norms.”
“The queer lens prioritizes the rights and well-being of people over the abstract idea of national security, and it challenges the mainstream understanding of nuclear weapons—questioning whether they truly deter nuclear war, stabilize geopolitics, and reduce the likelihood of conventional war,” she wrote in the piece. “Queer theory asks: Who created these ideas? How are they being upheld? Whose interests do they serve? And whose experiences are being excluded?”
She has also previously described DEI policies as “a set of values critical to security” which can “work to mitigate counterproductive work behavior and prevent disgruntled employees from becoming insider threats.”
Many on social media were astounded by her claims.
There was also doubt as to whether queer theory would be the most appropriate policy in the face of nuclear warfare.
