Nuclear Issues

Colleagues and friends share stories and memories of Robert (Bob) Frosch, who passed away in late December at 92. Bob joined the Belfer Center in 1993 and continued contributing to the Center community until his death.

Every president serving in the last two decades has said that nuclear terrorism is a significant national security threat. Analysis of this threat has been, for good reason, mostly focused on foreign extremist groups, but recent events raise questions of whether there should be greater focus in the United States on far-right, domestic extremist threats. These extremists represent a unique danger because of their prevalence in federal institutions such as the military and the potential that they might infiltrate nuclear facilities, where they could access sensitive information and nuclear materials.

The Biden administration not only inherits a country where COVID-19 is surging and jobs are hemorrhaging, but he also takes over a perilous global landscape when it comes to nuclear arms control and disarmament. The Trump years saw the dissolution of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (i.e. the Iran nuclear deal) and the Open Skies Treaty. President Trump has not extended New START, the last remaining arms control treaty, leaving 16 days for the new administration to work out an extension before the treaty expires.

Drs. Katlyn Turner, Denia Djokić, and Aditi Verma join the "Press the Button" podcast for an in-depth discussion on how systemic racism in the nuclear field is produced and sustained, and what needs to happen in order to begin combating it. Drs. Turner, Djokić, and Verma recently co-authored an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists titled "A Call for Anti-Racist Action and Accountability in the US Nuclear Community."

Hypersonic missiles have been receiving a lot of attention lately, but do they deserve the hype? And what kind of implications do these nuclear advancements have for equity and justice? The Union of Concerned Scientists hosted a conversation featuring Dr. Cameron Tracy, Kendall Fellow for the Global Security program at UCS, and Dr. Aditi Verma, Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow at the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom and the International Security Program to answer these questions.

In this issue, we highlight five new books by Belfer Center members.

In the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, the Belfer Center’s Korea Project co-sponsored an event on October 6 with the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Boston to explore the impact of the election outcome on North Korea policy. A group of diverse policy analysts drew on their collective experience serving in various administrations and conducting cutting-edge research on North Korea for a lively panel discussion.

In the days and weeks following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, the Belfer Center community joined in the public outcry against individual and systemic racism and began an intensive look inward at what must be done to dismantle the racism that continues in the United States. Affiliates of the Project on Managing the Atom are looking inward at the nuclear field as part of their effort to eliminate racism in the U.S.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) poses a challenge to decades of Japanese nuclear policy. While Japan has relied on the US nuclear umbrella since the aftermath of World War II, numerous pro-disarmament groups — including the Hibakusha — are calling for Tokyo to join the Treaty. The authors contribute to these discussions with commentary on a new national survey they conducted in Japan (N = 1,333). Their results indicate that baseline support for the Prime Minister signing and the Diet ratifying the TPNW stands at approximately 75% of the Japanese public.

Since 2007, international media have reported the violent deaths of four scientists and engineers connected with Iran’s nuclear program and an attempt on the life of a fifth. The news reports on such killings are murky, incomplete, and, in some instances, likely inaccurate. The motivations and identity of the persons behind the killings are also obscure,¹ but the fact that they are taking place is undeniable.