David Blagden is a senior lecturer in international security at the University of Exeter’s Strategy and Security Institute. He was previously an Adrian research fellow in international politics at Darwin College, University of Cambridge. His research has been published in International Security, Security Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Survival, International Affairs, Foreign Policy Analysis, and International Studies Review, among other outlets; he has also provided public commentary for the BBC, The Guardian, the New Statesman, and The Spectator. He obtained his DPhil at the University of Oxford, and has subsequently consulted for the UK Cabinet Office, Ministry of Defence, and Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, among others. He is also an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve, but stresses that this article is work completed in his civilian academic capacity; it has not received input from—and does not reflect the official views of—the Royal Navy or the UK Ministry of Defence.
Justin Bronk is a research fellow specializing in combat airpower and technology in the Military Sciences team at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He is also editor of the RUSI Defence Systems online journal. Justin has written on air-power issues for the RUSI Journal, RUSI Defence Systems, RUSI Newsbrief, the Journal of Strategic Studies, and the RAF Airpower Journal, and contributes regularly to the international media. He is also a part-time doctoral candidate at the Defence Studies Department of King's College London (KCL) and holds an MSc in the History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA (Hons) in History from York University.
Mario E. Carranza teaches in the Department of History, Political Science, and Philosophy at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. His articles on nuclear proliferation in South Asia have appeared in the Nonproliferation Review, Asian Survey, International Politics, and Contemporary Security Policy. His publications include: India–Pakistan Nuclear Diplomacy: Constructivism and the Prospects for Nuclear Arms Control and Disarmament in South Asia (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), South Asian Security and International Nuclear Order: Creating a Robust Indo–Pakistani Nuclear Arms Control Regime (Ashgate, 2009), “Condemned to Eternal Confrontation? Beyond the Indo–Pakistani Nuclear Conundrum,” Contemporary Security Policy (December 2015), “Rising Regional Powers and International Relations Theories: Comparing Brazil and India’s Foreign Security Policies and their Search for Great-Power Status,” Foreign Policy Analysis (April 2017), and “Deterrence or Taboo? Explaining the Non-use of Nuclear Weapons during the Indo-Pakistani Post-Tests Nuclear Crises,” Contemporary Security Policy, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 441–63 (2018). He has a PhD in political science from the University of Chicago.
Ola Dahlman worked on arms-control negotiations for more than thirty years. He served as chairman of the Working Group on Verification at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Preparatory Commission from 1996–2006, after chairing the Group of Scientific Experts from 1982–96. Dr. Dahlman was the deputy director general of the Swedish Defence Research Institute. He headed the Institute’s Laboratory for Information Technology and the Laboratory of Weapons and Weapons Systems, which includes protection against nuclear weapons. He also directed a project on antisubmarine warfare. Dr. Dahlman served as science adviser for Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) issues to Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He co-chaired a multi-year dialogue on the threat of bioterror among bio-experts from Europe, Russia, and international organizations, with contributions from industry. He served as the Swedish representative to the Panel on Research of the Western European Armament Group, and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences.
BreAnne Fleer is a senior undergraduate student at Cornell University majoring in Government and French. She was a summer 2019 intern at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, where she researched radiological-weapon threats and far-right extremism. At Cornell, she is a research assistant in the Department of Government, focusing on comparative politics, and previously worked as a research assistant in the Department of Psychology. She is writing her senior honors thesis on the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
Minji Kim is a master's student at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, whose thesis concerns cybersecurity in Japan and South Korea. She previously worked as a consultant at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation and as a research intern at Peace Network, a Seoul-based nongovernmental organization. Specializing in North Korea policy and security in Northeast Asia, she has written on the Korean Demilitarized Zone, inter-Korean relations, and South Korean defense and security policy in both Korean and English for South Korea-based journals and organizations, including the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Korea office. She holds a BA in History and Science and Technology Studies from Korea University, South Korea.
Łukasz Kulesa is deputy head of research at the Warsaw-based Polish Institute of International Affairs. His research interests include nuclear and conventional deterrence and arms control, NATO, Russian security policy, WMD nonproliferation, and security aspects of the transatlantic relationship. Between 2014 and 2019, Łukasz worked as research director at the European Leadership Network (ELN). From 2010–12, he was deputy director of the Strategic Analyses Department at the National Security Bureau, a body providing support to the president of Poland in executing his security and defense prerogatives. Łukasz authored or coauthored a number of analyses in Polish and English, including: “Dilemmas of Arms Control: Meeting the Interests of NATO’s North-Eastern Flank” (2020); “The Future of Deterrence: Effectiveness and Limitations of Conventional and Nuclear Postures,” in Tomás Valášek, ed., New Perspectives on Shared Security: NATO’s Next 70 Years (Brussels, Belgium: Carnegie Europe, 2019); “Towards a more stable NATO-Russia relationship,” (ELN, 2019); and “The Future of Conventional Arms Control in Europe” (IISS Survival, 2018).
Jenifer Mackby has worked on international security, nonproliferation, and arms control at the Federation of American Scientists, Partnership for a Secure America, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the CTBTO Preparatory Commission. She served as secretary of the negotiations on the CTBT, the Group of Scientific Experts, the Verification Working Group of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission, as well as review conferences of the Biological Weapons Convention and the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Ms. Mackby directed projects on US–UK Nuclear Cooperation, Asian Trilateral Nuclear Dialogues, Twenty-first Century Nuclear Issues, a Russian–European study on bioterrorism, an international study on Strengthening the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and a CTBT International Coalition. She contributed to an international consortium on securing WMD, Strengthening the Global Partnership, and a benchmarking study comparing nuclear and aviation security. She has written and coauthored numerous books and articles, spoken at conferences around the world, and appeared widely in the media.
Timothy P. McDonnell is a Stanton nuclear security fellow with the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His primary line of research centers on the history of US nuclear posture as it relates to US foreign policy. In addition to his focus on nuclear matters, McDonnell also studies modern conventional warfare. He earned his PhD in political science from the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to joining Carnegie, McDonnell was a predoctoral fellow at the George Washington University’s Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, a research associate for MIT Seminar XXI—a professional education program for military officers and civilian national security professionals—as well as a RAND summer associate, where his research supported US Army maneuver short-range air defense (M-SHORAD) programs. Following his postdoctoral fellowship, McDonnell will be joining CNA’s Strategy and Policy Analysis program. The views expressed here are his own.
Svein Mykkeltveit was a delegate for Norway to the Group of Scientific Experts from 1986, and a convenor of the planning process for the group’s GSETT-3 experiment. He has advised Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on CTBT issues. From 1997 until 2019, he was a friend of the chair and task leader of the Working Group on Verification at the CTBTO Preparatory Commission. Since 1979, he has held research and managerial positions at the Norwegian Seismic Array (NORSAR), and is currently a special adviser. Mykkeltveit was project leader for the design and establishment of regional seismic arrays in Norway in the 1980s and 1990s. He has authored and coauthored papers on interpretation of seismic refraction data, seismic array design, processing methodology for seismic data, understanding of the seismic noise field, and other topics relevant to monitoring of nuclear tests. He has participated in the United Kingdom–Norway Initiative and the Quad Nuclear Verification Partnership.
Izumi Nakamitsu assumed her position as under-secretary-general and high representative for disarmament Affairs on May 1, 2017. Previously, Nakamitsu served as assistant administrator of the Crisis Response Unit at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), director of the Asia and the Middle East Division of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and director of UNDP’s Division of Policy, Evaluation and Training. As a professor of international relations at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo 2005–08, Nakamitsu served as a member of the Foreign Exchange Council to Japan’s foreign minister, and as a visiting senior adviser on peacebuilding at the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Between 1998 and 2004, she was the chef du cabinet and director of planning and coordination at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, based in Stockholm, Sweden. She holds a Master of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Law degree from Waseda University in Tokyo.
Hanna Notte is a senior political officer with The Shaikh Group, a nonprofit consultancy focused on track-two conflict mediation in the Middle East. Dr. Notte supports the Group’s track-two efforts focused on Syria, mutual security in the Middle East, as well as the organization’s advocacy vis-a-vis Russia, the United States, and European capitals. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Oxford, from where she also received an MPhil in 2014. She spent a year from 2015–16 in Moscow with the Institute of Oriental Studies and the Carnegie Moscow Center. Other visiting research positions have included the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Manama, Bahrain, and the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation’s Syria/Iraq office in Beirut, Lebanon. Dr. Notte holds a BA in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University. She researches, speaks, and writes regularly on Russia's relations with Middle East/North African countries and disarmament/nonproliferation of WMD in the Middle East. She is a non-resident scholar at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
Joseph O’Mahoney is a lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of Reading, United Kingdom. Previously, he was a Stanton nuclear security junior faculty fellow at MIT’s Security Studies Program, and he has taught at Seton Hall University, Brown University, and George Washington University. He is the coauthor of British colonialism and the criminalization of homosexuality: queens, crime, and empire (Routledge, 2018) and author of Denying the spoils of war: the politics of invasion and nonrecognition (Edinburgh University Press, 2018). He has also published articles in Journal of Global Security Studies, International Organization, International Theory, European Journal of International Relations, Conflict Management and Peace Science, and the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, as well as articles in the press, including the Washington Post, TIME magazine, and The Conversation. He received his PhD from George Washington University.
Tom Plant is the director of the Proliferation and Nuclear Policy program at RUSI. His research interests include nuclear deterrence, arms-control, proliferation issues—particularly in relation to North Korea—and UK nuclear policy. He is also director of the UK Project on Nuclear Issues, a cross-generational network of over 900 members which encourages young scholars and professionals to engage with established experts on contemporary nuclear issues. Before joining RUSI, he was a principal specialist at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, where he was responsible for technical oversight of arms-control verification research programs, including collaborations and exchanges with counterparts in China, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. Prior to that he held various posts at the Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Commonwealth Office, mostly focused on non-proliferation and counterproliferation issues in East Asia and the Middle East. During this time, he spent a year seconded to KCL as a research fellow, working on a UK-funded project in support of the IAEA, and remains a visiting senior research fellow with The Policy Institute at KCL. He holds a Masters in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a Postgraduate Certificate in Systems Engineering from Cranfield University.
Joshua H. Pollack is the editor of the Nonproliferation Review and a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), based in Washington, DC. Before joining CNS in 2016, he worked as a defense-policy analyst specializing in weapons of mass destruction. From 2010 until 2016, he served as a deterrence analyst specializing in the Asia-Pacific region for the Plans and Policy Directorate of US Strategic Command. He has been a RUSI associate fellow since 2015. He holds a master’s degree from the Maryland School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park, and a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College.
Frode Ringdal joined NORSAR as a research scientist in 1969. He became the director of NORSAR in 1977, a position he held until 1997. He was scientific secretary of the Group of Scientific Experts during its entire twenty-year life span. Dr. Ringdal served as a task leader in the Working Group on Verification of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission from 1997 to 2016. In 1999, he organized and led an international scientific effort on location calibration of the International Monitoring System, with annual seminars held over five years with the participation of specialists from about twenty countries. The results were essential for the successful calibration effort of the seismic network. Dr. Ringdal has been a guest editor of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, and has published numerous papers on seismology and topics relevant to nuclear test ban monitoring.
Charly Salonius-Pasternak works as a senior research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. His work focuses on international security issues, with a regional focus on Nordic and transatlantic security (including NATO), as well as US foreign and defense policy. Thematically, he focuses on crisis management and peacekeeping and the impact of technology on security, including the development of warfare. During 2009–10, Salonius-Pasternak worked at the Finnish Defence Command (J5) to provide advice to the senior leadership of the Finnish Defence Forces. In 2017, he was a visiting research fellow at the Changing Character of War program at Pembroke College, Oxford University. Salonius-Pasternak gives frequent presentations and lectures at universities and to diverse organizations both in Finland and around Europe. He regularly publishes in English, Swedish, and Finnish, and has appeared on CNN, BBC, SkyNews, Bloomberg TV, ABC Australia, the CBC, NPO (Netherlands), VRT (Belgium), SVT (Sweden), and Finnish broadcasters YLE, MTV, and Nelonen.
Dmitry Stefanovich is a research fellow with the Center for International Security at the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences. His research focus includes strategic weapons, long-range precision-strike weapons, arms control, and emerging technologies and their impact on security and stability. He is also a non-resident fellow at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH). He participated in events and tabletop exercises hosted by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Pugwash Scientists Movement, and a number of other organizations. Some of his recent publications include: “Is Non-Nuclear Deterrence Possible?” (Russian International Affairs Council, 2020), “Russia’s Basic Principles and the Cyber-Nuclear Nexus” (European Leadership Network, 2020), “The Enduring Complexity Of Compliance Disputes” (UNIDIR, 2020), and “Artificial intelligence advances in Russian strategic weapons” (in Petr Topychkanov, ed., The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Strategic Stability and Nuclear Risk: Volume III, SIPRI, 2020). He holds a specialist degree (with honors) in International Relations from the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” in Moscow.
Christine Varriale is a research fellow in proliferation and nuclear policy at RUSI, where she focuses on North Korea’s WMD programs, inter-Korean relations as they relate to issues of security and denuclearization, and disarmament diplomacy in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Prior to joining RUSI in 2016, she worked in nuclear policy and research with the International Centre for Security Analysis and with the British American Security Information Council. She has also been a contributor at IHS Jane’s, producing open-source research on historical and current nuclear programs. Cristina holds an MA in Nonproliferation and International Security from KCL. She was also part of the 2018 Nuclear Scholars Initiative at the Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, DC.
Tong Zhao is a senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, based at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. His research focuses on strategic security issues, including nuclear-weapons policy, deterrence, arms control, nonproliferation, missile defense, hypersonic weapons, and regional nuclear crises. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament and on the Advisory Board of the Missile Dialogue Initiative. He is an associate editor of the journal Science & Global Security and a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials. He was previously a Stanton nuclear security fellow with the Managing the Atom Project and the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He has held a number of other positions, including as a nonresident WSD-Handa fellow at Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies and with the Office of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality. He holds a PhD in science, technology, and international affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology and received his Bachelor’s degree in physics and his Master’s degree in international relations from Tsinghua University.