Project

Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age

Overview

Building on the Academy’s long history of studies on arms control,  Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age is a two-phase project that seeks to articulate a new framework for governing relations among the nine existing nuclear weapons states, with a particular attention to strengthening strategic stability within two critical nuclear triangles: China, the U.S., and Russia as well as India, Pakistan, and China.

Phase One - now concluded - built upon past Academy work and the premise that the foundations and principles that came to define the nuclear order after World War II and throughout the Cold War have eroded dramatically, bringing the world closer to a possible use of nuclear weapons in the near future. Several factors are responsible for this dangerous situation:

  • The rise of new nuclear weapons states, the weakening of multilateral institutions, the development of non-nuclear strategic weapons, and the awakening of an era of great power competition are certainly the most important.
  • New security challenges like the ones posed by non-state actors demand innovative solutions.
  • The consensus around the norms and values that have traditionally underpinned relations among nuclear weapons states and between nuclear weapons states and the rest of the international community continues to deteriorate.

These multifaceted challenges demand a multilateral and interdisciplinary approach that takes into account technological developments in the nuclear field and related areas such as in the cyber, artificial intelligence, and space domains, together with the changing geopolitical landscape.

Phase Two, chaired by Scott Sagan and Vipin Narang, is investigating deterrence and defense implications facing small nuclear force-countries and potential proliferators, with an emphasis on potentially-destabilizing regional and sub-regional nuclear dynamics.

Project at a Glance

To achieve this goal, we will:

  • Identify the most likely escalation pathways that could lead to the use of nuclear weapons by one or more of the nuclear weapons states; and
  • Develop recommendations, addressed to U.S. policy makers, for de-escalating a nuclear crisis involving the United States

In addition, the project aims to contribute to the advancement of nuclear studies in the United States and around the world.

People

People

Project Chairs
Steering Committee Members

Steven E. Miller

Harvard Kennedy School
Director, International Security Program
Academy Member

Scott D. Sagan

Stanford University
Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Academy Member
Working Group

Sumit Kumar Ganguly

Indiana University
Tagore Professor of Indian Cultures and Civilizations; Professor of Political Science
Academy Member

Steven E. Miller

Harvard Kennedy School
Director, International Security Program
Academy Member

Scott D. Sagan

Stanford University
Caroline S.G. Munro Professor of Political Science, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Academy Member
Project Staff

Melissa Chan

Program Coordinator for Global Security and International Affairs
Publications

Publications

News & Updates

News & Updates

Events

Events

Project Activities

Project Activities

The initiative has begun exploring the core challenges posed by the new nuclear age by convening a series of consultations with nuclear experts, policymakers, and scholars in Chicago, New York City, Cambridge, MA, and Washington, D.C. An inter-generational working group has met to engage in dialogue, creative thinking, and theoretical innovation.

Project contributors have also conducted consultations with U.S. State Department and Department of Defense officials to better understand the main concerns and priorities of the U.S. nuclear policymakers.

The project recently published an issue of Dædalus, as well as the third in a series of research papers investigating the relationship between the nuclear order and the international system.

Upcoming activities include: 

  • A series of meetings and outreach activities on the themes of the Dædalus issue geared toward policy-making and expert-academic communities.