Nuclear Strategy & Nonproliferation Initiative: Recent and Upcoming Events

Unlike the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) has no mechanism to ensure compliance and verification.

Given the dramatic advances in the life sciences over the past decade, the international community urgently needs to discuss strengthening the BWC.

On Thursday the New America Foundation hosted Ward Wilson, winner of the 2008 Doreen and Jim McElvany Nonproliferation Challenge, to examine the underpinnings of nuclear deterrence theory. Joined by Jeffrey Lewis, Director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative, Wilson challenged the belief that nuclear weapons continue to serve a useful purpose in the world. An MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below, while video is available at right. Wilson's argument framed nuclear weapons in the… more

The next President will conduct yet another Nuclear Posture Review -- the third since the end of the Cold War. What's the point? Will it be any different or just more of the same? At this May 20 New America event, Dr. Janne Nolan tackled these tough questions and others. Dr. Nolan, currently a professor of international affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, is author of An Elusive Consensus: Nuclear Weapons and American Security after the Cold War, considered… more

On May 7th the New America Foundation’s Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative joined AAAS’s Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy for a discussion on the present and future role of nuclear weapons in U.S. and World security. The event featured Dr. Arnold Kanter, Principle and Founding Member of the Scowcroft Group, Dr. Morton Halperin, Director of U.S. Advocacy for the Open Society Institute, and Dr. Barry Blechman, co-founder of the Harry L. Stimson Center. Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, Director of… more

Most scholars and policymakers favor stemming the tide of nuclear proliferation, even as they acknowledge the pacifying effects of established nuclear arsenals on great power relations. When it comes to nuclear arsenals, how robust must a country's nuclear arsenal be--how much is enough? Some of the key variables in existing studies - e.g., the nuclear "balance of power" - have been poorly conceived, and the data used to measure the nuclear balance and its effect on policy has come from… more

On April 9th, Jeffrey Lewis, director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative, hosted James Acton, a Lecturer in the Centre for Science and Security Studies in the Department of War Studies at King's College London for a talk entitled "Nuclear Mind Reading: Iran's Nuclear Intentions and the IAEA". Acton analyzed the IAEA's ability to assess states' intent?as opposed to their capabilities?and then asked what the IAEA means when it announces that an issue is ?no longer considered to be… more

Before China carried out an anti-satellite test in January 2007, some U.S. policy-makers, including NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and the U.S. House China Working Group, advocated greater cooperation between the United States and China in space. After the test, which created a massive cloud of space debris that angered international space professionals and alarmed the American public, increased references to U.S.-China competition and hints of a new space race drowned out calls for cooperation. Using the experience they… more

Nuclear terrorism is an urgent threat, but policy debates have been dangerously dominated by caricatured depictions of terrorist groups and potential plots. In his latest book, On Nuclear Terrorism, Michael Levi argues that an obsession with worst-case scenarios and finding perfect defenses has blinded us to important opportunities to confront the nuclear threat.

On Jan. 30, the Nuclear Strategy & Nonproliferation Initiative drew together Levi and New America’s Priscilla Lewis and Jeffrey Lewis to engage in a discussion of… more

This summer’s public revelation that China has constructed two or more new ballistic missile submarines raises a number of strategic, operational and bureaucratic questions about the future of nuclear arsenals held by China and the United States. How China deploys and operates these systems, as well as how the United States responds, will significantly impact the stability of deterrence in the Pacific. The New America Foundation invites you to join five national security scholars as they participate in a… more

On December 3, 2007, DNI Mike McConnell released a summary of the national intelligence estimate on Iran, stating that "in fall 2003 Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." Join the American Strategy Program for a timely discussion on the implications of the Iran NIE.

In 1999, a mysterious Iraqi applied for political asylum in Munich. The young chemical engineer offered compelling testimony of Saddam Hussein’s secret program to build weapons of mass destruction. He claimed that the dictator had constructed germ factories on trucks, creating a deadly hell on wheels. His German hosts passed along his account to their CIA counterparts, but denied CIA agents access to their star informant. The Americans dubbed him with an unforgettable code name: Curveball. After September 11,… more

Joseph Cirincione is one of America’s best known weapons experts. His new book, Bomb Scare, begins with the first atomic discoveries of the 1930s and covers the history of their growth all the way to the current crisis with Iran. Cirincione unravels the science, strategy, and politics that have fueled the development of nuclear stockpiles and increased the chance of a nuclear attack. He also explains why many nations choose not to pursue nuclear weapons and pulls from this… more

Iraq had never been a central front in the war on terror before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 made it so. Now, four years later, a critical question weighs heavily on the minds of scholars and practitioners alike: how has the Iraq War affected the global jihadist movement? In order to define and counter Iraq’s terrorism legacy, Stephanie Kaplan offers a new framework for understanding the jihad effect, or war’s impact on the trajectory of terrorist movements. According… more

At this New America event, Dr. John Harvey addressed plans for the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons program including efforts to "transform" the stockpile and supporting infrastructure proceeding from the premise that the United States will need a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear deterrent for the foreseeable future.

While today’s stockpile -- comprised of legacy warheads left over from the Cold War -- is safe and reliable, some contend that, absent nuclear testing, the United States… more