With 47 heads of states in attendance, this week’s unprecedented summit in Washington is drawing the world’s attention to the role of international cooperation in preventing nuclear proliferation and terrorism.
Douglas Shaw, associate dean for planning, research and external relations at the Elliott School of International Affairs and a former member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Material Security Task Force, talked with GW Today about the summit and about nuclear studies at George Washington University.
Q: What does the GW community need to know about the summit?
A: President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit is convening leaders from around the world to support his initiative to secure all fissile material – plutonium and highly enriched uranium that could be used to make nuclear weapons – across the globe in the next four years.
This is important for three reasons. First, nuclear proliferation and the prospect of nuclear terrorism pose a catastrophic threat to U.S. national security as well as global security. Second, protecting fissile material is key to preventing nuclear terrorism and proliferation. And, finally, a lack of political commitment has been a major obstacle to fissile material protection.
Q: What are some of the major international issues with respect to nuclear weapons that are likely to be important developments in 2010?
A: This is a crucial year for nuclear policy.
The U.S. Nuclear Posture Review, a significant revision to U.S. nuclear weapons policy released last Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Defense, reduces the role of nuclear weapons, seeks to increase stability with Russia and China, and offers important assurances that the United States will not use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have these weapons and abide by their nonproliferation commitments.
The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed Thursday in Prague pledges the most significant cuts in nuclear arms in a generation and, even more importantly, extends the legally binding verification provisions that helped to stabilize the end of the Cold War into the 21st century. An Elliott School alumna, assistant secretary of state for verification, compliance and implementation Rose Gottemoeller, M.A.’81, was the chief U.S. negotiator for this treaty and will speak at the Elliott School’s commencement celebration in May.
This week’s summit will directly engage world leaders in effort to protect against nuclear proliferation and terrorism. In May, the 180-plus parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will meet at the United Nations to review the performance of the treaty and discuss steps to strengthen it.
This summer, Congress will consider modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and nuclear weapons complex. Later this year, NATO will review its strategic policies and likely consider the continued usefulness of U.S. nuclear weapon deployments in Europe. Very importantly, the Senate will consider ratification of START, and President Obama has also indicated that he will resubmit the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to the Senate (more than a decade after the Senate rejected this treaty in 1999). The events of 2010 will shape our global capacity to prevent nuclear terrorism and proliferation for a generation.
Q: How would you grade the Obama administration with respect to nuclear policy?
A: The START treaty, the Nuclear Posture Review and this week’s summit are all important achievements. The president set very high expectations by committing the United States “to seek the peace and security of a world free of nuclear weapons” while allowing that this might not happen in his lifetime. Ultimately, his work must be evaluated on the momentum and institutional capacity he builds as well as specific achievements.
Q: What are some of the unique ways GW differs from other schools in its study of and teaching on nuclear issues?
A: GW is a longtime leader in the education of nuclear policy professionals, including Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, National Security Council Director for Nonproliferation Adam Scheinman, M.A. ’90, and Defense Department Treaty Compliance Director Thomas Troyano, M.A. ’87.
We have more than a dozen faculty members from a variety of disciplines who are experts in different aspects of the field. The recent book Going Nuclear: Nuclear Proliferation and International Security in the 21st Century, edited by Elliott School Dean Michael E. Brown, illuminates the debate over the causes and consequences of nuclear proliferation.
Charlie Glaser, professor of political science and international affairs, leads the new Institute for Security and Conflict Studies at the Elliott School. Gerald Feldman, associate professor of physics, is researching new ways to identify nuclear material in cargo containers. Christopher Cahill, associate professor of chemistry, is researching the nuclear fuel cycle for the Department of Energy.
Our location also allows us to deeply engage policy debates. In the past year, more than two dozen world-class experts on nuclear security spoke at the Elliott School.
Q: What, if anything, can universities do to contribute to disarmament?
A: Universities can respond to a “missing generation” of nuclear experts as Sir Lawrence Freedman, professor of war studies at King’s College London, observed in remarks at GW last year.
A quarter of the U.S. Department of Energy’s nuclear security staff will reach retirement age by 2013. Half the International Atomic Energy Agency’s leadership will retire within five years.
Moreover, 21st-century verification and safeguards will need to be very different from those of a generation past. The world urgently needs more interdisciplinary research on these topics and more professionals educated by those undertaking this research.
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