During the latter part of the Cold War, many strategists thought of nuclear deterrence and arms control as two of the most essential stabilizing elements of the same strategy in managing an adversarial relationship. The renewed crisis between the West (the United States and NATO member states) and Russia demonstrates how critical these elements are to the strategic nuclear relationship. As a result of recent setbacks between Washington and Moscow in the past few years, arms control has taken a back seat, and the risk of conflict due to miscalculation is the highest it has been since the 1980s.

The work of improving nuclear security is not done, though leaders are no longer meeting at the summit level. The threats of nuclear theft and terrorism remain very real. States, nuclear operating organizations, and institutions and initiatives supporting nuclear security must strive for continuous improvement in nuclear security. The alternative is dangerous decline. Achieving genuinely effective implementation of existing recommendations and commitments in five key areas could dramatically strengthen nuclear security around the world.

Nickolas Roth reflects upon Doomed to Cooperate by Siegfried S. Hecker, which tells the story of how, after the Cold War ended, U.S. and Russian scientists worked together to strengthen Russian nuclear safety and security, reduce proliferation risks, and advance nuclear science. He identifies that the book provides important lessons for policymakers in each country who are, just as they were more than two decades ago, scrambling to cope with the rapidly changing relationship between the world’s two largest nuclear superpowers.

This week the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced that 546 kilograms of plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU) shipped from Japan arrived in the United States.

This spring, the United States hosted the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC. Senior representatives of more than 50 nations convened to mark the end of an unprecedented international initiative over the last six years to strengthen security measures aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism. During that time, many states made significant progress, but more work is needed.

Non-civilian or military nuclear materials comprise the vast majority of the world’s nuclear material stocks – yet they remain outside the scope of much of the existing global nuclear security architecture. Policymakers will need to consider ways to address this “military materials gap” by advancing new mechanisms and strategies in order to develop and sustain a comprehensive global nuclear security architecture. Particular attention should be placed on developing confidence building measures and other transparency tools to build international assurance in the security of military materials. This paper will discuss the various strategies for addressing military materials security and propose recommendations for how the international community can address the concept of comprehensiveness in the global nuclear security architecture going forward.

"Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are once again trading barbs over who has the right disposition to be president -- including who is best suited to have a "finger on the button. It is, of course, not unusual for candidates to critique each other's qualifications. But there is a good reason why assessing the candidates' judgment and temperament is particularly important: The president of the United States has complete authority over more than 1,000 nuclear weapons ready to launch...."

The 2016 nuclear security summit was a pivotal moment for the decades-long effort to secure nuclear material around the globe. More than 50 national leaders gathered in Washington for the last of four biennial meetings that have led to significant progress in strengthening measures to reduce the risk of nuclear theft.

In the months and weeks before the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., Belfer experts promoted a series of ideas to strengthen measures to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons or the essential ingre­dients to make them.

One of the key announcements at the Nuclear Security Summit today was that enough countries have ratified the amendment to the Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials (CPPNM) for it to enter into force. The 1980 CPPNM criminalizes nuclear theft and includes requirements for securing civilian nuclear material in international transport.  In 2005, a proposed amendment to the CPPNM was opened for signature that would extend its coverage to include physical protection for materials in domestic use, storage, and transport, and sabotage of nuclear facilities.