11 Events

Blogtrepreneur/Flickr

Blogtrepreneur/Flickr

Seminar - Open to the Public

Solving the Jurisdictional Conundrum: The Use of Domestic Civil Courts to Disrupt Overseas Illicit Procurement

Wed., Apr. 4, 2018 | 10:00am - 11:30am

One Brattle Square - Room 350

Speaker: Aaron Arnold, Associate Project on Managing the Atom; Assistant Professor at Curry College

Over the past two decades, the United States has increasingly turned to targeted sanctions and export restrictions, such as those imposed against Iran and North Korea, in order to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). One vexing problem, however, is how to contend with jurisdictional hurdles when the violations occur overseas, in countries that are unable or unwilling to assist US enforcement efforts. To solve this problem, US prosecutors are turning to strategies with significant extraterritorial implications— that is, exercising legal authority beyond national borders. One such tool is to use civil legal procedures to seize assets linked to sanctions or export control violations in jurisdictions that lack cooperative arrangement with US enforcement agencies. While this may be an attractive strategy to bolster enforcement efforts against overseas illicit procurement such tools are not without consequence.

Gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment recovered from the BBC China in Italy, en route to Libya, in 2003. They were later taken to the Y-12 complex in the USA where this picture was taken (with a Y-12 guard also in the picture).

U.S. Department of Energy

Seminar - Open to the Public

Countering WMD-related Illicit Trade: Insights from White Collar and Business Crime

Wed., Mar. 7, 2018 | 10:00am - 11:30am

Littauer Building - Fainsod Room, 324

Speaker: Daniel Salisbury, Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

Individuals and entities from the private sector have long contributed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), acting as middlemen and suppliers. Over the past decades, trade in WMD-related goods has become increasingly regulated, and illicit trade increasingly criminalized. Despite the clear role that these actors have played in recent proliferation cases, supplying North Korea and Iran among others, the conceptual literature on proliferation behavior has largely continued to focus on the state level. This seminar will draw on concepts from criminology, and particularly the study of white collar crime, to provide insights into the behavior of these non-state suppliers and middlemen, and to generate more effective means of countering their activities.
 

Seminar - Open to the Public

Illicit Commercial Flows: What They Hide and How to Counter Them (New Date and Time)

Wed., Feb. 25, 2015 | 10:00am - 11:30am

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

Nikos Passas is a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University. He specializes in the study of corruption, illicit financial/trade flows, sanctions, informal fund transfers, remittances, white-collar crime, terrorism, financial regulation, organized crime and international crime. He will present an MTA seminar on illicit commercial flows - what they hide and how to stop them.

Seminar - Open to the Public

Iran: Compliance at the Cost of Nonproliferation?

Mon., May 20, 2013 | 12:15pm - 2:00pm

Rubenstein Building - Room G20

Iran's failure to comply with its non-proliferation obligations is viewed as one of the most urgent threats to the nuclear non-proliferation regime and international peace and security. Given that diplomacy has thus far not been successful in changing that country's conduct, the only available options for dealing with the problem seem to be increasingly crippling sanctions and, possibly, military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. The seminar presentation challenges the above assumptions by drawing attention to the absence of serious diplomatic efforts and lack of understanding of what is at stake for Iran in the dispute.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

A Chinese man is framed by the remains of the Yalu River Broken Bridge which was bombed by U.S. forces during the Korean War near Dandong, China, Oct. 19, 2006. On Oct. 19, 1950, China sent hundreds of thousands of "volunteers" to the aid of North Korea.

AP Photo

Seminar - Open to the Public

Who's Afraid of the Bomb? Why States Fight Nuclear Opponents

Wed., Mar. 27, 2013 | 10:00am - 11:30am

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

This presentation asks why states without nuclear weapons fight opponents with nuclear weapons. The presentation critically examines the claim that states believe opponents will not use nuclear weapons in conflict.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

An Aug. 14, 2011, satellite image shows a facility in Al-Hasakah, Syria. IAEA investigators have asked Syria about this complex, in the image’s lower center, because they believe it closely matches uranium enrichment plant plans sold by A.Q. Khan.

AP Photo

Seminar - Open to the Public

Navigating the Nuclear Marketplace: How States Select Acquisition Strategies

Thu., Feb. 2, 2012 | 12:15pm - 2:00pm

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

This seminar examines how domestic nuclear markets shape how states seek to acquire nuclear weapons. While scholars have studied the demand and supply drivers of nuclear proliferation extensively, little is known about how these two factors influence the behavior of states pursuing nuclear weapons. Understanding how states come to pursue different nuclear acquisition strategies can shed light on several important issues.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Co-sponsored by Project on Managing the Atom

The seats of the U.S. delegation are vacant during the ceremony marking the entry into force of the Ottawa Convention on the prohibition of landmines at Geneva, Switzerland, on Mar. 1, 1999. The U.S. did not sign or ratify the convention.

AP Photo

Seminar - Open to the Public

Big Sticks and Contested Carrots: A Theory of International Security Institutions

Thu., Mar. 11, 2010 | 12:15pm - 2:00pm

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

Why are some regulatory arrangements such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and Landmines Convention weak, while others like the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) more robust? In this seminar, the speaker suggests that while states negotiate institutions for a variety of purposes, only those institutions built by powerful states to regulate the behavior of weaker states are likely to be strong and effective in changing state behavior. The speaker tests his theory with a brief overview of security institutions in different issue areas selecting cases to provide variation in institutional strength — spread of nuclear weapons, use of land mines, use of force in post–Cold War Europe (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and missile defense during the Cold War (ABM Treaty).

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Swiss engineer, Daniel Geiges, center, outside the high court in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 5, 2008. Geiges was given a 13-year suspended sentence for charges relating to a network run by disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan.

AP Photo

Seminar - Open to the Public

Institutional Design to Prevent Illicit Nuclear-Related Trade

Thu., May 7, 2009 | 12:15pm - 2:00pm

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

How do states design agreements to promote their goals? What accounts for variation in design elements, even within single regimes? This presentation will explore efforts to prevent the trade in nuclear-related materials for illicit purposes, through the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and the Proliferation Security Initiative.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come-first served basis.