When a mysterious explosion rocked Russia's Arctic coast on August 8, killing at least five people and leading to a brief spike in radiation, the CNS team of open-source analysts immediately suspected a test of the so-called "Skyfall" missile, the nuclear-powered cruise missile touted by Vladimir Putin last year.

Evidence uncovered by CNS experts largely supports that initial hunch. Jeffrey Lewis explains in Foreign Policy.

CNS experts appeared in nearly every major news outlet—from ABC and CNN to NPR and Reuters—to discuss what they discovered, how they did so, and what it means for strategic stability and the new Cold War.

Despite living in a nuclear-weapon state, young Americans are generally ill-informed about WMD and their means of control. The result is both widespread apathy toward nonproliferation and disarmament decision making among the general public and a looming personnel crisis within government sectors that enact policy in these domains. Considering that 67 percent of high school graduates in the United States go on to pursue a bachelor’s degree, exposing more undergraduates to nonproliferation and disarmament issues could contribute to addressing both of these challenges.

A new study in the Nonproliferation Review by Eurasia Program Director Sarah Bidgood analyzes how these issues are taught at American universities and explores ways to introduce them to more students, such as through interdisciplinary learning, digital humanities, and data-science learning. It also proposes concrete steps that the WMD policy community can take to help institutions of higher education integrate these topics more broadly into their curricula. The anticipated result is greater support for WMD education as well as increased engagement with these issues among a more diverse population of young people.

Each year, on August 6 and 9, the phrase "Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki" is widely trotted out, but what does it actually mean?

Writing in Impakter, Senior Project Manager of the Nonproliferation Education Program Masako Toki implores us to go beyond remembering to "actively learn" about the "extreme hardships that are beyond description," which can inform the present-day context of a "deteriorating global security environment."

While there is no short-term solution to today's challenges, disarmament education is a clear, vital element. As an educator working with young people, she writes: "I have witnessed first-hand, time and again, the galvanizing effect of disarmament education in engendering passion, commitment, and informed activism for disarmament among students."

On Friday, August 2, Assistant Secretary Christopher A. Ford gave a luncheon discussion at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies Washington, DC, office to discuss a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone in the Middle East. Middle East Nonproliferation Program Director Dr. Chen Kane moderated the event.

The event attracted around 80 policy experts, government officials, and members of the media. CSPAN broadcast the event live.

The CSPAN broadcast and the full transcript of Dr. Ford's presentation is available.

North Korea recently released images showing a new class of submarine that will likely carry multiple submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). As a successor to its SLBM test platform—the Gorae—the construction of this system has been underway for some time near the Sinpo Shipyard.

Senior Research Associate Dave Schmerler analyzes satellite imagery of Sinpo from Planet Labs to show construction of a new training center, now nearly complete, which will increase the training capacity of North Korea's submarine fleet.

The nuclear dynamics within the Indo-Pacific region are linked by not only regional conflicts and geopolitical interests, but also an increase in nuclear energy programs. These interlinkages, according to John Tilemann, research director of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, require us to think about the region as a whole, and not as individual crises. 

At an event hosted by the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation on August 8, Mr. Tilemann identified three primary pillars for strengthening nuclear security in the region.