Nuclear Strategy & Nonproliferation Initiative

During the first year of his or her Administration, the next President of the United States will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. That President will have an opportunity – and an obligation – to define our nation’s approach to nuclear weapons, including negotiated limits on our own forces and multilateral efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

We believe the next two years offer a unique opportunity to build a new bipartisan consensus around a dramatically reduced role for nuclear weapons in US security policy and a renewed emphasis on building international institutions to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative seeks to empower the next President of the United States to announce major revisions to US nuclear weapons policy that are valuable on their own merits and undertake a diplomatic campaign to strengthen international nonproliferation institutions based on the enhanced legitimacy that would arise from those dramatic changes.

Our project is organized around creating a draft Presidential guidance on nuclear weapons, along with a report that will outline the practical challenges associated with implementation. We have convened a ten-person bipartisan steering committee with individuals who have served in the Administration of every President since Lyndon Johnson. These individuals represent organizations including the Open Society Institute, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Center for American Progress, College of William and Mary, and others.

Jeffrey Lewis directs the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative.