FIRST ON FOX – A recent hire at the nuclear security wing of the Department of Energy has previously called for disarmament policies – which reduce or eliminate nuclear weapons – arguing that advancing "queer theory" was essential to that agenda as well as important to America's national security.
The Biden-Harris administration announced Sneha Nair had been appointed as special assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration in February 2024. Nair believes in eradicating purported "White supremacy" in the nuclear field as well as "queering nuclear weapons" as part of a diversity, equity and inclusion push she believes is essential for deterring threats to nuclear energy facilities in the U.S.
"Finally, queer theory informs the struggle for nuclear justice and disarmament," she wrote last year. "Queer theory helps to shift the perception of nuclear weapons as instruments for security by telling the hidden stories of displacement, illness, and trauma caused by their production and testing."
Nair argues that DEI, more broadly, "is essential for creating effective nuclear policy."
Before she joined the administration, she worked for the Stimson Institute, which has received hundreds of thousands from Soros' Open Society Foundations and millions from "The Embassy of the State of Qatar" over the years, Fox News Digital's review of their funding sources revealed.
Stimson and the Department of Energy were contacted for comment for this story but did not respond.
Nair believes that without a DEI agenda, the workforce of a nuclear security facility is at risk for becoming "insider threats," Nair said in an article from April 2023.
"By understanding DEI as a set of values critical to security, and therefore as an element of an effective nuclear security culture, stakeholders can explore how DEI can contribute to stronger security at nuclear facilities," she said.
"Collectively, these principles (of DEI) can work to mitigate counterproductive work behavior and prevent disgruntled employees from becoming insider threats," she claimed.
Nair explicitly says that bolstering DEI is a national security matter. "DEI principles and advancement must be considered crucial assets for strengthening nuclear security implementation," Nair added.
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Nair's DEI agenda envisions expanding America's deep secrets to people with foreign connections, claiming those individuals were discouraged from applying as an issue of race bias.
She said, "U.S. government reports show that qualified applicants with foreign ties have been discouraged from applying to sensitive national security positions and faced barriers to obtaining a security clearance. This is in part due to preconceived confirmation biases held by investigators about certain racial or ethnic groups."
"Considerable progress has been made in advancing DEI in the nuclear field, but the largest obstacle remains in ensuring that nuclear security practitioners understand how DEI can serve as a tool to strengthen nuclear security," she said in the article. "Greater focus on the intersections between nuclear security and DEI is essential."
Regarding race bias, Nair believes that White staff at nuclear facilities don't have the ability to properly evaluate threats from people of the same racial group, notably radical White supremacists.
"Diversifying the perspectives included in nuclear security decision-making can expand the definition of who or what constitutes a ‘threat’ for nuclear security," she said. "The notion of ‘threat’ and ‘security’ are defined by the dominant culture, which inherently sidelines how marginalized groups … perceive ‘threats.'"
Dominant culture is an academic concept about power which refers to how the U.S. has traditionally been shaped by White people.
"An example of this is the threat posed by some White supremacist groups to nuclear facilities may go undetected if a White-majority workforce does not perceive these ideological leanings as indicators of a relevant nuclear security threat," she claimed.
"[I]ntegrating DEI into nuclear security culture can help reimagine how each state’s nuclear security regime understands 'threat' to ensure a comprehensive assessment of the security risks facing a facility," she concluded.
"Equity and inclusion… is essential for creating effective nuclear policy," an article titled "Queering Nuclear Weapons" authored by Nair on "disarmament" from June 2023 said.
She then discussed how a radical academic concept, called critical queer theory, is crucial to addressing national security threats.
"Queer theory: changing the narrative…. Queer theory is a field of study, closely related to feminist theory, that examines sex- and gender-based norms. It shines a light on the harm done by nuclear weapons through uranium mining, nuclear tests, and the tax money spent on nuclear weapons… "
"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. Queer theory asks: Who created these ideas? How are they being upheld? Whose interests do they serve? And whose experiences are being excluded?"
She said, "Queer theory also identifies how the nuclear weapons discourse is gendered: Nuclear deterrence is associated with ‘rationality' and ‘security,’ while disarmament and justice for nuclear weapon victims are coded as ‘emotion’ and a lack of understanding of the 'real' mechanics of security."
Nair also said that nuclear policy through the lens of queer theory is about rejecting "the tenet that nuclear deterrence creates security and disarmament creates vulnerability."
