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The Global Security and International Affairs program area draws on the expertise of policy-makers, practitioners, and scholars to foster knowledge and inform innovative and more substantial policies to address crucial issues affecting the global community. Projects underway in this area engage with pressing strategic development and moral questions that underpin relations among people, communities, and states worldwide. Each initiative embraces a broad conception of security as the interaction among human, national, and global security imperatives. Project recommendations move beyond the idea of security as the absence of war toward higher aspirations of collective peace, development, and justice.
 

Committee on International Security Studies
 

CHAIR

Scott D. Sagan
Stanford University


MEMBERS

Nicholas Burns
Harvard University

Antonia Chayes
Tufts University

Christopher Chyba
Princeton University

Karl Eikenberry
formerly, Stanford University; U.S. Army, ret.

Tanisha Fazal
University of Minnesota

Martha Finnemore
George Washington University

Nicholas Kristof
The New York Times

Susan Landau
Tufts University

Robert Legvold
Columbia University

Rose McDermott
Brown University

Steven E. Miller
Harvard University

Barry Posen
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Adam Roberts
University of Oxford

Jennifer M. Welsh
McGill University

Paul H. Wise
Stanford University
 

 

Committee Meeting
 

Annual Meeting of the Committee on International Security Studies (CISS)

October 10, 2019
House of the �����Ƶ
Cambridge, MA

During the annual meeting, CISS members reviewed the progress of current projects within the Global Security and International Affairs program area, discussed how CISS members are seeking to ensure the impact of their various scholarly activities, and brainstormed key areas for future �����Ƶ work on global security and international affairs.
 

Meeting Chair
 

Scott D. Sagan
Stanford University
 

Keynote Speakers
 

Karl Eikenberry
formerly, Stanford University; U.S. Army, ret.

Nicholas Kristof
The New York Times
 

 

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Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age, Phase One

The world has entered a new nuclear era. No longer dominated by two nuclear superpowers, the evolving multipolar nuclear order presents fundamental challenges to the conceptual and practical means of avoiding nuclear war. Moreover, the new era has slowly dismantled the bilateral arms control framework, with no clear prospect that it will be revived and extended. The possibility that a framework or frameworks encompassing other, let alone all, nuclear powers can be achieved seems even more remote. In addition, advances in weapons technology and the opening of new frontiers, such as cyber capabilities and artificial intelligence, make a shifting environment still more complex. The pathways to inadvertent nuclear war have multiplied across more regions and relationships.

Since 2017, the Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age project has worked to identify the major dangers generated by the dynamics of a multipolar nuclear world that pose the greatest threat of inadvertent nuclear war; offer alternative approaches to addressing each of these dangers; facilitate discussions with relevant communities in the United States and abroad; and encourage and assist policy-makers, Congress, the analytical community, and the media to think systematically about our increasingly multipolar world. The publications produced by the project have been shared widely with domestic and international policy-makers, scholars and students of nuclear affairs, and leaders of international organizations.

Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age is rooted in the critically important work on arms control that the �����Ƶ conducted from 1958 to 1960 to prevent a nuclear confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. During that time �����Ƶ Fellows gathered monthly to build a cooperative framework between the United States and the Soviet Union based on the limitations of the nuclear stockpile and the establishment of mutual vulnerability between the two rivals. The group included Donald Brennan, Edward Teller, Henry Kissinger, and Thomas Schelling, among others. Today, more than ever, an effort that brings together scholars and policy-makers to examine the wide range of challenges posed by the changing nuclear order is urgently needed.
 

Project Chairs
 

Robert Legvold
Columbia University

Christopher Chyba
Princeton University
 

Steering Committee
 

Thomas J. Christensen
Princeton University

Lynn Eden
Stanford University

Steven E. Miller
Harvard University

Janne Nolan†
George Washington University

Scott D. Sagan
Stanford University

Jon Wolfsthal
Nuclear Crisis Group
 

Working Group Members
 

James M. Acton
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Mark Bell
University of Minnesota

Linton Brooks
Center for Strategic and International Studies; formerly, U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration

M. Taylor Fravel
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sumit Ganguly
Indiana University, Bloomington

Francis J. Gavin
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies

Michael Krepon
Stimson Center

Hans Kristensen
Federation of American Scientists

Jessica Tuchman Mathews
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Nicholas Miller
Dartmouth College

Steven E. Miller
Harvard University

Vipin Narang
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Janne Nolan†
George Washington University

Olga Oliker
International Crisis Group; formerly, Center for Strategic and International Studies

George Perkovich
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Steven Pifer
Stanford University; Brookings Institution; formerly, U.S. Department of State

William Potter
James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

Mira Rapp-Hooper
Yale Law School

Scott D. Sagan
Stanford University

Michael Swaine
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Nina Tannenwald
Brown University

Jane Vaynman
Temple University

Keren Yarhi-Milo
Princeton University
 

Project Staff
 

Poul Christiansen

Francesca Giovannini

Kathryn Moffat

Tania Munz

Brendan Roach

Kathleen Torgesen
 

Funders
 

Louise Henry Bryson and John E. Bryson

John F. Cogan, Jr.†

Lester Crown

Alan M. Dachs

Bob and Kristine Higgins

Richard Rosenberg

Kenneth L. and Susan S. Wallach
 

† Deceased
 

Project Publications
 

Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age: U.S. and Russian Nuclear Concepts, Past and Present, Linton Brooks, Alexei Arbatov, and Francis J. Gavin (American �����Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2018)

Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age: Emerging Risks and Declining Norms in the Age of Technological Innovation and Changing Nuclear Doctrines, Nina Tannenwald and James M. Acton, with an Introduction by Jane Vaynman (American �����Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2018)

Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age: Nuclear Weapons in a Changing Global Order, Steven E. Miller, Robert Legvold, and Lawrence Freedman (American �����Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2019)

Contemplating Strategic Stability in a New Multipolar Nuclear World, Robert Legvold (American �����Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2019)

“Meeting the Challenges of a New Nuclear Age,” ��æ�岹���ܲ�, edited by Robert Legvold & Christopher Chyba (2020)
 

Project Meeting
 

Nuclear Weapons in a Changing Global Order: Hill Briefings

July 31, 2019
Capitol Hill
Washington, DC

Steven Miller, a member of the project’s steering committee, and �����Ƶ staff briefed foreign policy and national security staff in several Senate offices on the �����Ƶ’s work on Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age as well as Promoting Dialogue on Arms Control and Disarmament. The discussions focused on key project findings, background on the changing multipolar nuclear order, and plans for continued engagement around the �����Ƶ’s portfolio of nuclear work.
 

Meeting Chair
 

Steven E. Miller
Harvard University

 

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Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age, Phase Two: Deterrence and New Nuclear States

With the emergence of three new nuclear powers (India, Pakistan, and North Korea) and several more potentially becoming nuclear states (including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey), the world is on the verge of a new nuclear age, which will demand new thinking about the security implications of nuclear powers that may be in highly hostile environments, suffer from domestic instability, have fewer resources, or be led by personalist dictators. Phase Two of Meeting the Challenges of the New Nuclear Age investigates the deterrence and defense implications facing small nuclear force-countries and potential proliferators.

The project is producing an edited volume of innovative, policy-relevant essays that will be published by a university press. Outreach activities will be aimed at nuclear policy-makers (primarily in the United States) and academic centers and think tank institutes with a specific focus on nuclear studies.
 

Project Chairs
 

Scott D. Sagan
Stanford University

Vipin Narang
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 

Advisory Committee
 

Victor Cha
Georgetown University

Lawrence Freedman
King’s College London

Robert Jervis
Columbia University

Jeffrey Lewis
Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey

Rose McDermott
Brown University

Barry Posen
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Gary Samore
Brandeis University

Caitlin Talmadge
Georgetown University
 

Project Staff
 

Poul Christiansen

Francesca Giovannini

Kathryn Moffat

Tania Munz

Brendan Roach

Kathleen Torgesen
 

Funders
 

Louise Henry Bryson and John E. Bryson

John F. Cogan, Jr.†

Lester Crown

Alan M. Dachs

Bob and Kristine Higgins

Richard Rosenberg

Kenneth L. and Susan S. Wallach
 

† Deceased
 

Project Meeting
 

Deterrence and New Nuclear States Authors’ Workshop

November 17–18, 2019
Stanford University
Stanford, CA

The authors of the forthcoming edited volume on deterrence and new nuclear states gathered for a two-day workshop to review the draft essays and discuss the volume’s cross-cutting conclusions and specific policy implications.
 

Meeting Chairs
 

Scott D. Sagan
Stanford University

Vipin Narang
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 

Keynote Speaker
 

William J. Perry
Stanford University; formerly, U.S. Department of Defense
 

 

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Promoting Dialogue on Arms Control and Disarmament

Unlike the Cold War, the current nuclear age is characterized by a simultaneous collapse of arms control agreements and the absence of any strategic dialogue among the three main nuclear players, which would serve to minimize and reduce the potential risks of a nuclear escalation.

One strand of the project’s work consists of a series of bilateral U.S.-Russia and U.S.-China dialogues designed to identify critical short-term goals in arms control. The meetings will identify areas for cooperation and conceptual thinking about measures that might strengthen strategic stability and help to reduce the significant dangers of nuclear weapons being used in the future. Through reports and outreach activities, the project aims to contribute to rebuilding trust and predictability among the rival Great Powers.

A second strand of work will build on the �����Ƶ’s experience organizing educational sessions for the United States Congress on a range of topics, including cybersecurity, disaster response, and federal research policy in addition to nuclear issues. Through a series of engagements with members of Congress and their staff, the project will help to foster and strengthen knowledge on key issues and challenges facing the United States in arms control and international security, including renewal of the New START treaty and the dangers of a world without nuclear constraints.
 

Project Chair
 

Steven E. Miller
Harvard University
 

Project Staff
 

Poul Christiansen

Francesca Giovannini

Kathryn Moffat

Tania Munz

John Randell

Brendan Roach

Kathleen Torgesen
 

Funder
 

The Raymond Frankel Foundation
 

Project Meetings
 

The Collapse of Arms Control: Implications and Consequences

October 23, 2019
Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C.

This briefing for congressional staffers from both House and Senate offices highlighted the perils associated with the decline and potential collapse of arms control and underscored the urgent need for dialogue among the key protagonists, particularly in the United States and Russia. Project Chair Steven Miller discussed how the global nuclear order has evolved since the Cold War, the implications of the collapse of arms controls agreements, the absence of any strategic dialogue among the three main nuclear players that would serve to minimize and reduce the potential risks of a nuclear escalation, and the �����Ƶ’s current nuclear policy work.
 

Meeting Chair
 

Steven E. Miller
Harvard University
 

 

Shanghai Bilateral Meeting

December 4–5, 2019
Shanghai �����Ƶ of Social Sciences
Shanghai, China

Project Chair Steven Miller led a delegation of U.S. former officials and experts to a two-day meeting that focused on a number of arms control issues in order to gain a better understanding of Chinese perspectives on current arms control priorities. The meetings also revealed the areas on which Chinese experts would like to engage further with U.S. and Russian experts.
 

Meeting Chair
 

Steven E. Miller
Harvard University
 

 

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Civil Wars, Violence, and International Responses

The Civil Wars, Violence, and International Responses project stems from the observation that current multilateral approaches for preventing, mitigating, and resolving civil wars and intrastate violence are often far too ambitious. They frequently overpromise stability, security, peace, democracy, and development to countries experiencing high levels of violence and instability. The project identified six threats that emerge from civil wars and intrastate violence: pandemic diseases, transnational terrorism, migration, regional instability, great power conflict, and criminality. The project has engaged in extensive domestic and international outreach to share findings and recommendations that deliver a more comprehensive, effective, and integrated approach to conflict prevention and crisis management, which encompasses security, diplomacy, and development strategies in countries such as Colombia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Syria, Lebanon, and Sri Lanka, among others. Building on these policy discussions, the project will publish a research paper that focuses on the policy implications of the project’s findings, which will be distributed to relevant policy-makers in the United States and internationally.
 

Project Chairs
 

Karl Eikenberry
formerly, Stanford University; U.S. Army, ret.

Stephen Krasner
Stanford University
 

Project Members
 

Michele Barry
Stanford University

Abdeta D. Beyene
Centre for Dialogue, Research, and Cooperation, Ethiopia

Stephen D. Biddle
Columbia University

Tanja A. Börzel
Freie Universität Berlin

Charles Call
American University

Susanna Campbell
American University

Martha Crenshaw
Stanford University

Lyse Doucet
BBC News

Tanisha Fazal
University of Minnesota

James Fearon
Stanford University

Vanda Felbab-Brown
Brookings Institution

Francis Fukuyama
Stanford University

Sumit Ganguly
Indiana University

Miguel García-Sánchez
Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Richard Gowan
New York University

Sonja Grimm
University of Konstanz, Germany

Jean-Marie Guéhenno
International Crisis Group

Joseph Hewitt
United States Institute of Peace

Stephen Heydemann
Smith College

Bruce Jones
Brookings Institution

Stathis Kalyvas
Yale University

Nancy Lindborg
United States Institute of Peace

Sarah Kenyon Lischer
Wake Forest University

Clare Lockhart
Institute for State Effectiveness

Aila M. Matanock
University of California, Berkeley

Seyoum Mesfin
Institute for Advanced Research, Ethiopia

Stewart Patrick
Council on Foreign Relations

Barry Posen
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

William Reno
Northwestern University

Thomas Risse
Freie Universität Berlin

Hendrik Spruyt
Northwestern University

Stephen Stedman
Stanford University

Eric Stollenwerk
Freie Universität Berlin

Paul H. Wise
Stanford University
 

Project Staff
 

Francesca Giovannini

Summers Hammel

Kathryn Moffat

Tania Munz

Kathleen Torgesen
 

Funders
 

Humanity United

Smith Richardson Foundation

Oak Foundation
 

Project Publications
 

“Civil Wars & Global Disorder: Threats & Opportunities,” ��æ�岹���ܲ�, edited by Karl Eikenberry & Stephen Krasner (2017)

“Ending Civil Wars: Constraints & Possibilities,” ��æ�岹���ܲ�, edited by Karl Eikenberry & Stephen Krasner (2018)

 

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Rethinking the Humanitarian Health Response to Violent Conflict

Rethinking the Humanitarian Health Response to Violent Conflict seeks to understand and address current trends in humanitarian contexts that pose new or evolving challenges for humanitarian health responders. Among the most pressing challenges are the increasingly protracted nature of civil and noninternational armed conflict; the fact that many of the world’s most violent places are facing criminal or political violence rather than conflict as conventionally understood; shortfalls in funding; and changing geopolitical relations. This project brings together political scientists, legal and security experts, health professionals, and humanitarians to examine current challenges to effective humanitarian action and to develop, where necessary, new strategies for preventing civilian harm and delivering critical health services in areas plagued by violent conflict.

The project’s initial work will focus on two key priority areas. First, building on its efforts to address the political and security dimensions of pandemic response in areas of weak governance and violent conflict, the initiative will convene a series of rapid-cycle workshops on global cooperation and pandemic control. Drawing upon the �����Ƶ’s strengths in political science, diplomacy, global health, and the arts, the project will explore how political legitimacy, trust in expert authority and information, divisive political environments, and cultural mechanisms of community protection and social cohesion shape the ability of states and international institutions to respond to infectious outbreaks.

Second, to respond to the acute challenges that humanitarian organizations face in addressing health needs in areas with extreme levels of political or criminal violence – settings that now account for more violent deaths than war zones – and in places where people are fleeing from such violence, the project will convene interdisciplinary groups of experts from across multiple regions to explore the questions state sovereignty poses for humanitarians operating in such settings and to analyze and examine how the dynamics of political and criminal violence influence humanitarian responses.
 

Project Chairs
 

Jaime Sepulveda
University of California,  San Francisco

Jennifer M. Welsh
McGill University

Paul H. Wise
Stanford University
 

Project Staff
 

Francesca Giovannini

Kathryn Moffat

Tania Munz

Rebecca Tiernan

Kathleen Torgesen
 

Funders
 

Louise Henry Bryson and John E. Bryson
 

Project Meetings
 

Meetings in New York City

New York, NY
February 27–28, 2020

During a series of individual and small-group meetings, the project cochairs solicited input from experts with extensive experience in policy and diplomacy relating to humanitarian responses in areas of violent conflict and extreme levels of political and criminal violence.
 

Meeting Chairs
 

Jennifer M. Welsh
McGill University

Paul H. Wise
Stanford University