New America Foundation Launches Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative

WASHINGTON, DC (4/12/07)—The New America Foundation today announced the launch of its Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis. Dr. Lewis, who publishes the leading weblog on arms control and nuclear weapons issues, ArmsControlWonk.com, formerly directed Harvard University’s Project on Managing the Atom, where he will continue as research affiliate.

“We are extremely pleased that Jeffrey Lewis is joining the New America Foundation to direct the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative,” said Steve Clemons, Director of the American Strategy Program at the Foundation. “Reviving a credible approach to managing nuclear weapons postures and capabilities while at the same time modernizing a deteriorating non-proliferation regime are vital challenges of our time, and Dr. Lewis is uniquely capable of guiding this new initiative.”

As Director, Dr. Lewis will lead the initiative’s effort to take a fresh look at how the United States plans, sizes and postures its nuclear forces.  The initiative will also consider how changes to US nuclear strategy and posture can be utilized as part of a renewed commitment to US leadership on nonproliferation issues.  In particular, the initiative will focus on issues related to the nuclear fuel cycle and reducing nuclear tensions in Northeast Asia and the Middle East.

“The United States should be the leader in a global effort to reduce the role that nuclear weapons play in international security,” Dr. Lewis said. “Undertaking this effort will require action and commitment from the White House and a broad, diplomatic coalition. I am very pleased to undertake these efforts at the New America Foundation, which has a strong history of adding bold, pragmatic solutions to significant national  debates.”

Dr. Lewis is widely renowned as one of the foremost experts in the field of arms control and nuclear weapons issues. He recently published Minimum Means of Reprisal: China’s Search for Security in the Nuclear Age (MIT Press, 2007) based on research he completed iwith the support of the MacArthur Foundation. He founded and maintains the leading blog on nuclear arms control and nonproliferation, ArmsControlWonk.com, and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
 
Previously, Dr. Lewis was Executive Director of the Project on Managing the Atom at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, where he will continue as a research affiliate. He has also served as a Research Fellow at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland School Of Public Policy (CISSM), Executive Director of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and with the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.