The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 continues to stand as the single most dangerous event of the nuclear age, when the world came closer than ever before or since to the prospect of nuclear annihilation. Scholars and analysts continue to revisit the CMC to learn its lessons in order to avoid nuclear dangers in the future. A number of recent accounts have shed new light on the various aspects of and incidents within the CMC, providing us with a better understanding of the dynamics of the crisis. As the world marks 60 years since those fateful events, the risk of nuclear conflagration is once again on the rise. Russia, a major nuclear power, is waging a war against Ukraine, a state supported by the United States and NATO, a nuclear-armed alliance. What were the most dangerous moments of the CMC? What contributed to and what ameliorated the risks of a nuclear conflagration? What can we learn from the CMC that is pertinent for preventing a conventional war in Ukraine from crossing the nuclear threshold? MTA brings together historians and political scientists to discuss the state of the art of history and politics of the Cuban Missile Crisis and gauge its relevance for the war in Ukraine and for future crises and conflicts. 

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Speaker: Scott D. Sagan, The Caroline S. G. Munro Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

In this Project on Managing the Atom Seminar, MTA will welcome Scott D. Sagan, the Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, the Mimi and Peter Haas University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Sagan will present "Atomic Aversion and American Public Opinion on Just War Principles," followed by a Q&A.

Scott Sagan, Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, co-director of Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, will present a MTA seminar entitled "More Nuclear Power without More Nuclear Proliferation?" on Wedensday, April 13, 2011 at 3:30pm in the Belfer Center library.

Scott D. Sagan, Ph.D., Co-Director of CISAC and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University will present a Managing the Atom Seminar entitled "The Evolution of Indian and Pakistani Nuclear Doctrine" on Wednesday May 7 at 2:15pm in the Belfer Center Library, Littauer 369.