Nuclear Issues

Members of the U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism weigh in on the Nuclear Security Summit, which will take place in Washington DC on March 31-April 1 and assess North Korea’s claim that it has tested a miniaturized hydrogen bomb; Belfer Center experts issue a report for the upcoming nuclear summit and visit Russia to discuss U.S.-Russian cooperation in the field of nuclear security.

Members of the Initiative weigh in on prospects of international counter-terrorism cooperation in Syria and elsewhere; Belfer Center experts continue to assess implication of Iran’s nuclear programl; Elbe Group meets 7th time to discuss countering nuclear terrorism, other issues on bilateral agenda, and more.

Belfer Center Experts Call for U.S.-Russian Cooperation against ISIS and Assess Iran deal; Graham Allison Briefs National Security Fellows on Threat of Nuclear Terrorism; Moldovan Authorities and FBI Have Interrupted Four Nuclear Smuggling Attempts; Last HEU Removed From Uzbekistan; and Russia Conducts a Nuclear Terrorism Exercise.

Belfer Center experts testify in U.S. Senate on Iran’s nuclear program; American and Russian experts weigh in on dangers of confrontation between U.S. and Russia; Obama’s letter draws the line under Megatons to Megawatts program; NNSA plans to spend $60 million on nuclear security in Russia.

“The CIA, more than any other agency, [has been] instrumental in stopping terrorism and bringing terrorists to justice,” Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan said during a JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy School in April.  “Will we make mistakes in the future? Probably. But the Agency is a wonderful organization and…I am frustrated with its image because it doesn’t comport with reality.”

As one of the most far-reaching accords in recent memory, the framework agreement reached by P5+1 and Iranian negotiators over Tehran’s nuclear program in Switzerland on April 2 generated no shortage of opinions from pundits. Balanced, in-depth assessments were scarcer.

Belfer Center hosts a conference on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation; Alexei Arbatov urges U.S. and Russia to jointly counter terrorism, and Elbe Group asserts  that the Ukraine crisis should not lead to suspension of U.S.-Russian cooperation against nuclear terrorism: read about these and other developments in the latest issue of the U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism Newsletter. Available in English and Russian.

For two days in October, Russian and American experts met at the Belfer Center to discuss the state of U.S.-Russia relations and look for glimmers of hope.

Unfortunately, few were seen. The conflict in Eastern Ukraine is only the most urgent manifestation of a deeply troubled relationship between Russia and the West—in particular the United States. As one Russian participant stated, “We should deal first with the problems that existed even before Ukraine.”

The Belfer Center’s Iran Project and the Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) co-sponsored a luncheon panel on the Iranian nuclear negotiations and the scenarios for the potential breakdown of current international talks on Iran, entitled “And Then What? Imagining the Middle East if Nuclear Negotiations with Iran Fail.”

Matthew Bunn is a professor of practice at Harvard Kennedy School and co-principal investigator for the Belfer Center’s Project on Managing the Atom. Bunn’s research focus is on nuclear theft terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and innovation in energy technology. During the Clinton administration, Bunn served as an advisor to the White House Office of Science Technology Policy, where he played a major role in U.S. policies related to the control and disposition of weapons-usable nuclear materials in the United States and the former Soviet Union. We asked Bunn about the current crisis in U.S.-Russian relations and its impact on nuclear security.