CNS News & Views: August 2021

Middlebury Institute of International Studies

August 2021

End of an Era: The US, Russia, and Nuclear Nonproliferation

US-Russian cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation has reached an inflection point. Policy makers in both capitals must now decide whether the risks posed by the spread of nuclear weapons are great enough to merit their renewed engagement—or whether the challenges in their bilateral relationship make it impossible to collaborate in this vital sphere.

Edited by CNS’s Ms. Sarah Bidgood, director of the Eurasia Nonproliferation Program, and Dr. William Potter, founder and director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, End of an Era: The United States, Russia, and Nuclear Nonproliferation identifies nonproliferation challenges that merit US-Russian cooperation and provides suggestions about specific measures that might be pursued. These suggestions are drawn from the seven case studies, which describe instances in which the United States and Russia previously have been able to find common ground, even during periods of considerable tension in their bilateral relationship.

Summer Undergraduate Fellows Present Research

The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) hosted thirteen undergraduate students from around the country for the Summer Undergraduate Fellowship Program this year. The fellowship started on June 7th and each fellow conducted an independent research project with advice from CNS experts. Each fellow presented research findings on August 5th and 6th.

The fellows’ research topics covered a wide range of issues including US policy toward North Korea’s nuclear and missile crisis, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East, historical aspects of biological weapons uses and lessons for the future, biosecurity, Iran’s missile technology, humanitarian impacts of uranium mining, Syria’s chemical weapons, gender and nuclear disarmament, export controls, and an arms control simulation game for high school students. For each fellow’s research summary and presentation, please see the project website.

Whose Bomb Is It Anyway?

A new interactive by CNS’s Jeffrey Lewis, David La Boon, Anne Marie Steiger and Kaitlin Emmons challenges readers to understand the underlying sameness of all nuclear weapons programs, regardless of country.

The authors write: “When you study nuclear weapons, you realize after a while that all nuclear programs look pretty much the same. It’s the same technology around the world after all. And the same terrible threat of destruction. These programs are the same in one slightly ironic way, too: Every country with (or pursuing) the bomb thinks it is special, that it is different. Every President, Prime Minister or Supreme Leader with a bomb says the same thing: all nuclear weapons are terrible, except my own. Those are just for defense. But they’re wrong. They’re all bad. All nuclear weapons programs are the same. Think you can tell them apart?”

Take the quiz

As Atomic Bomb Survivors Age, They’re Motivating the Next Generation on Disarmament

Education is a powerful tool for making progress towards a world free of nuclear weapons writes Ms. Masako Toki, Project Manager and Research Associate, Education Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS). In her article for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the importance of preserving the voices of hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings, is discussed specifically through educational programs for youth.

Ms. Toki has organized the Critical Issues Forum (CIF) at CNS since 1998. CIF is an educational program for high school students in the United States, Russia, and Japan that focuses on disarmament and nonproliferation. By fostering an appreciation for different cultural perspectives on complex international security issues, this program empowers students to grow into individuals who can contribute to international peace, security, disarmament, and other social justice work. Current public awareness of nuclear threats is low, and the average age of hibakusha is now 84. The need to convey to youth the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapon use is urgent.

CNS and CENESS Convene Second Virtual US-Russia Nuclear Dialogue Series

CNS and the Moscow-based Center for Energy and Security Studies brought together a group of more than fifty US and Russian experts for a virtual dialogue series last month. The series consisted of three separate events held over a two-week period.

Although US-Russia relations remain in a state of crisis, speakers and participants across all three meetings agreed on the importance of continued cooperation on priority challenges facing the nonproliferation regime. Of the dialogue series, CNS Director William Potter said: “The candid and constructive discussion among a diverse group of nonproliferation experts generated a number of concrete recommendations for restoring greater US-Russian nonproliferation cooperation. It also demonstrated the value of engaging the next generation of nonproliferation experts, a number of whom are recent graduates of the MIIS-MGIMO Dual Degree Program in Nonproliferation Studies.” CNS and CENESS will convene another set of nuclear dialogue events in fall 2021.