Press Release
Cambridge, MA – The Belfer Center welcomes Jon Wolfsthal as an Associate with the Project on Managing the Atom. Wolfsthal is the former Special Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Affairs and Senior Director at the National Security Council for arms control and nonproliferation. Before that, he was Deputy Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey. He joined Monterey after having been Special Advisor to Vice President Joseph R. Biden for nuclear security and nonproliferation and as a director for nonproliferation on the National Security Council from 2009-2012.
“We are delighted to have Jon join our group at the Belfer Center,” said Professor Matthew Bunn, co-principal investigator of the Project on Managing the Atom. “Jon’s experience and expertise in reducing the risks posed by nuclear weapons will be invaluable as we think through how to confront new dangers and opportunities—from our relations with Russia and Iran to the modernization of our own nuclear arsenal and the future of arms control.”
During his time in government, Wolfsthal was involved in almost every aspect of U.S. nuclear weapons, arms control, and nonproliferation policy. He helped negotiate and secure the ratification of the New START arms reduction agreement with the Russian Federation, and helped support the development of nuclear policy including through the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review and other elements of the Obama Administration's nuclear policies. He was previously a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Deputy Director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He served in several capacities during the 1990s at the U.S Department of Energy, including an on-the-ground assignment in North Korea during 1995-96.
With Joseph Cirincione, he is the author of Deadly Arsenals: Tracking Weapons of Mass Destruction and a leading authority on nuclear weapons policy, regional proliferation, arms control and nuclear deterrence. His work has included extended assignments in Russia, North Korea and travel to Iran. He is the author of dozens of scholarly articles and op-eds and has appeared on or been quoted in many leading domestic and international news media outlets.