The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), in collaboration with Negotiation Design & Strategy, released  a new report  examining the role of additive manufacturing (AM) in enabling the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

This report is the first beyond-the-horizon assessment of the consequences of AM (also known as 3D printing), not only on potential nuclear-weapons programs, but also on other WMDs—including biological and chemical weapons—and their means of delivery.

In its exclusive look at the report, Scientific American delved deeper into the WMD proliferation challenges presented by emerging technologies, such as AM and artificial intelligence.

The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) released a new report examining current and emerging challenges to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and provides a set of recommendations to address them. Titled "IAEA Safeguards: Staying Ahead of the Game," the report examines ways that the IAEA can maximize its ability to anticipate and address challenges arising from the fast-changing global environment.

The report is authored by former VCDNP Executive Director Laura Rockwood with the assistance of VCDNP Research Associates Noah Mayhew and Artem Lazarev and VCDNP Office and Events Manager Mara Zarka, and was funded by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority.

Iranian government officials are deeply concerned that other countries—especially the United States and Israel—are developing biological weapons to use against Iran, according to new research by Philipp C. Bleek and Cyrus A. Jabbari.

Bleek and Jabbari presented the findings of their research at an event at the CNS office in Washington on September 16. Their talk, titled "Answering Threats with Threats: Are Iranian Biological Weapons Fears Driving Offensive Development?," was attended by a combination of Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) alumni and US government officials.

For information on future MIIS alumni events, contact Breanna Donofrio.

When Donald Trump tweeted an image of Iran's Semnan Launch Site One on August 30, many open-source analysts—those at CNS included—were shocked. Not because the image showed that the launch of a Safir space-launch vehicle failed. Nor was it because the tweet raised the possibility that the United States had been involved in the launch failure. "Far more consequential," wrote Joshua H. Pollack in The Daily Beast, was that the photograph's "resolution is well beyond that of any commercially available image" and "strongly suggests that the President of the United States had just tweeted out a sensitive imagery intelligence product."

The consequences of him having done so may be global, says Pollack.

August 29 marked the 70th anniversary of the first Soviet atomic-bomb test. It also marks International Day against Nuclear Tests, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2009 as a way to increase awareness and education about the deleterious effects of nuclear testing.

And while it has been 23 years since the signing of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the world seems even further away from that treaty's goal of banning explosive nuclear testing.

Writing for Inkstick, Margaret Rowland Croy warns that a small but influential contingent of senior officials believes we should start testing again, despite the many reasons—"environmental health, public safety, aggressive signaling, fiscal impact, uselessness (with regard to diverting hurricanes)"—we should not.

The newest edition of the Nonproliferation Review, the world's only peer-reviewed journal focused on the causes and consequences of the spread of weapons of mass destruction, includes cutting-edge research on:

As a reminder: all articles accepted for publication in the NPR are automatically eligible to win the Doreen and Jim McElvany Award. Authors can now submit their article through our new online portal for a faster, more efficient peer-review process.