Past Projects

Strengthening the Global Partnership

The Strengthening the Global Partnership project was a CSIS-led consortium of 23 research institutes in 18 European, Asian, and North American countries working to build political and financial support for G8 efforts to reduce the dangers from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, beginning in the former Soviet Union. Although international cooperation has significantly reduced these dangers since the end of the Cold War, the task of eliminating them is far from complete. The risk that materials or weapons of mass destruction (WMD) will fall into terrorist hands remains alarmingly high.

Restoring the International Nonproliferation Consensus

The Restoring the International Nonproliferation Consensus project, was made possible by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, explores means of rebuilding the international consensus on issues related to the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. It examined the fault lines that have recently thwarted prospects for international cooperation and will recommend ways to bridge differences and work together to address proliferation-related problems. 

Several different tasks were examined over the course of the three-year study including promoting P-5 cooperation, reaching out to Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries, restoring U.S.-European collaboration, strengthening nonproliferation institutions, reducing the rift on nuclear disarmament, and preparing for a nuclear-armed North Korea.

Contributions to Nuclear Security Project

In January 2007, four esteemed American statesmen – former Senator Sam Nunn, former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry – wrote an influential op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, arguing that the growing spread of nuclear weapons and materials leaves the world facing the “very real possibility that the deadliest weapons ever invented could fall into dangerous hands..” They repeated their call one year later in the same pages.
Since then, Senator Nunn’s organization, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), launched an effort to follow up on the vision outlined in the two articles, seeking to highlight the dangers of nuclear proliferation and reinvigorate the national and international debate surrounding nuclear disarmament. CSIS is proud to be involved with NTI’s Nuclear Security Project.

The work with NTI involves surveying the international attitudes of key countries to the idea of a nuclear free world and gauging opinions on the associated steps that would be necessary to achieve nuclear disarmament, beginning with reducing the reliance of nuclear weapons as an instrument of countries’ security policies. This project has involved international travel to engage with policymakers and leading opinion-leaders, as well as extensive background research on multiple countries’ positions toward various nonproliferation treaties and policies, such as the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, negotiations on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, and reductions of the alert status on operationally-deployed nuclear missiles.

To learn more about NTI’s Nuclear Security Project, please visit www.nuclearsecurityproject.org.

Preventing Proliferation Cascades

Over the past few years, Iran’s nuclear program has continued to expand.  Neighboring states have begun to signal in various ways that they are increasingly concerned about these nuclear developments, and some are contemplating responses that could exacerbate the current threat to regional stability.  The greatest risk is that Iran’s activities could lead to a “cascade of proliferation” in the surrounding region, where multiple states seek to balance its nuclear capabilities with their own. 
This project tracks nascent nuclear programs in the Middle East that have appeared in the years since Iran’s nuclear activities have been brought to light. Many countries in the region, such as Egypt and Turkey, have tried unsuccessfully in the past to initiate civil nuclear programs but their efforts have assumed a greater impetus within the last few years. Preventing Proliferation Cascades examines the trajectory of these programs and seeks to define ways in which the worst-case scenario for regional stability and the nonproliferation regime – the emergence of several states seeking to match Iran’s efforts – can be avoided.