Few problems pose greater challenges to U.S. national security than controlling, reducing and countering the proliferation of nuclear arms. The Brookings Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative brings the Institution’s multidisciplinary strengths to bear on the critical challenges of arms control and non-proliferation. Housed in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Brookings Foreign Policy program, the Initiative addresses global arms control and proliferation challenges, as well as the central negotiations between the United States and Russia.
Brookings Senior Fellow Steven Pifer directs the initiative, joined by Senior Fellow Robert Einhorn. Brookings President Strobe Talbott is actively involved in the Initiative, which also draws on the expertise of a number of other Brookings experts.
Research by Brookings experts in the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative focuses on several clusters:
- nuclear arms reductions, including U.S.-Russian nuclear arms reductions, reductions of third-country nuclear forces and the challenges of moving to a non-nuclear world;
- U.S. nuclear deterrence policy in the 21st century;
- nuclear non-proliferation challenges, including ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and entry into force, a fissile materials cut-off treaty, strengthening the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons , nuclear security, civil nuclear energy cooperation, regional security (Middle East, Northeast Asia, South Asia), the North Korea nuclear challenge and negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program.
The initiative supports a dialogue led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Strobe Talbott, and former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on U.S.-Russian cooperation on nuclear arms reductions and non-proliferation, which has produced joint recommendations that are shared with senior U.S. and Russian officials. The initiative also sponsors the Brookings Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Roundtable Series and public events aimed at discussing the key arms control and non-proliferation challenges of the day. The initiative produces research and policy recommendations on these issues, including the Brookings Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Series papers.