11 Events

U.S. President Gerald Ford and Soviet Communist Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev sign the joint communiqué at the conclusion of their two days meeting near Vladivostok, Nov. 24, 1974.

AP/CB

Seminar - Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Escaping MAD: Technology, Politics, and U.S. Nuclear Strategy

Thu., Mar. 14, 2024 | 12:15pm - 1:45pm

One Brattle Square - Room 350

Speaker: David Kearn, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

The book project seeks to explain the divergence of views of within the strategic community after the signing of the SALT I Accords and the subsequent shift in U.S. strategic nuclear policy away from "assured destruction" to "nuclear warfighting" throughout the 1970s and culminating in the Reagan administrations "prevailing strategy."

Open to Harvard ID Holders Only: Admittance will be on a first come–first served basis. Coffee &Tea Provided.

President Jimmy Carter along with George M. Seignious, right, director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency briefs community leaders on SALT II at the White House in Washington, Oct. 12, 1979.

AP/Charles Tasnadi

Seminar - Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

A Strange Arms Debate: Legitimation, Essential Equivalence, and Carter's Nuclear Strategy

Thu., Feb. 1, 2024 | 12:15pm - 1:45pm

One Brattle Square - Room 350

Speaker: Colleen Larkin, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

President Jimmy Carter entered office committed to reducing the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. foreign policy. He espoused the logic of mutually assured destruction and hoped for major arms control progress. Yet by the end of his presidency, he had embraced a competitive nuclear posture and accelerated the arms race. What explains this shift in Carter’s strategy? 

Open to Harvard ID Holders Only: Admittance will be on a first come–first served basis. Coffee &Tea Provided.

A phone screenshot with notifications from a Ukrainian air raid app.

Mariana Budjeryn

Seminar - Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Impressions from a Journey to Ukraine

Thu., Jan. 25, 2024 | 12:15pm - 1:45pm

One Brattle Square - Room 350

Speaker: Mariana Budjeryn, Senior Research Associate, Project on Managing the Atom

What is it like living in a country at war? How does the war imprint itself on everyday life, on holidays and celebrations, on work and art, even far away from the active front line, in the deep rear? Mariana Budjeryn traveled to visit her family in Lviv, western Ukraine, over the holiday break. She shares her impressions and reflections on life amid Christmas carols and air raid sirens and on how ordinary people contribute to the war effort and cope with the losses and grief it inflicts, amid uncertain prospects for its conclusion.

Open to Harvard ID Holders Only: Admittance will be on a first come–first served basis. Coffee &Tea Provided.

Seminar - Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

The Security Imperative: Pakistan's Nuclear Deterrence & Diplomacy

Thu., Oct. 19, 2023 | 10:00am - 11:30am

One Brattle Square - Room 350

Speaker: Ambassador Zamir Akram, Author, The Security Imperative: Pakistan's Nuclear Deterrence & Diplomacy

Ambassador Akram will discuss his new book, which is an in-depth study of the evolution of Pakistan's nuclear program until it became a reality despite all the international pressures against it and the challenges along the way.

Open to Harvard ID Holders Only: Admittance will be on a first come–first served basis. Coffee, Tea, & Light Refreshments Provided.

Seminar - Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Book Talk: Inheriting the Bomb: Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament and Why It Matters

Fri., Apr. 7, 2023 | 11:00am - 12:30pm

Taubman Building - Allison Dining Room, 5th Floor

The Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) invites you to attend a discussion of MTA Senior Research Associate Mariana Budjeryn’s bookInheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023). Matthew Bunn will provide introductory remarks and Steve Miller will serve as a discussant during the session. For those attending in-person, light breakfast and refreshments will be served at 10:30am. The talk and webinar will begin at 11:00am EDT.

While this event is on the record, the event organizers prohibit any attendees, including journalists, from audio/visual recording or distributing parts or all of the event program without prior written authorization. 

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., speaks about climate change during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Oct. 7, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Seminar - Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Nuclear Politics with Senator Ed Markey

Thu., Jan. 19, 2023 | 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Taubman Building - Nye A, B, & C, 5th Floor

Join Senator Ed Markey in conversation with Professor Matthew Bunn for a discussion on nuclear issues in the shadow of the war in Ukraine. With a new Congress, and ongoing conflict in Ukraine, nuclear issues are as important as ever. What are the challenges ahead? What is being done to address them? What new thinking may be helpful?

In-person attendance is limited to HUID-holders only. The general public is welcome to join this event via Zoom.

Special Series - Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

And Then What? Imagining the Middle East if Nuclear Negotiations with Iran Fail

Wed., Feb. 4, 2015 | 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

As nuclear negotiations with Iran go into their second year, and the US congress considers a new sanctions bill, the chances of reaching a comprehensive settlement are highly uncertain. The number of regional and global actors with stakes in Iran’s nuclear trajectory means that a failure of negotiations would have far-reaching consequences. Different scenarios leading to the breakdown of talks could produce distinct pathways for the aftermath of diplomatic failure. In particular, whether or not negotiations end with the P5+1 united or divided will affect the prospects of further multilateral sanctions, as well as the behavior of Iran and its regional rivals.  The panel will examine these scenarios, and consider the consequences of a collapse of the negotiations for Iran’s nuclear policy, for regional politics and security, and for relations among the P5+1.

Seminar - Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Richard Rhodes: Author of 'Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race'

Tue., Oct. 30, 2007 | 9:30am - 11:00am

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Rhodes examines the arms race during the final years of the Cold War and the Reagan-Gorbachev decade from memoirs, interviews, and newly released information in a third volume of nuclear history, Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race.