Nonproliferation
Iran’s Nuclear Tightrope: Between Power and Peril
The article discussed is “What Good Is a Nuclear Threshold Capability? Lessons from Iran’s Nuclear Program and Recent Regional Conflict.” YouTube · Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Amazon Music Hosts: Sheena Chestnut Greitens and Ryan Vest…
What Good Is a Nuclear Threshold Capability? Lessons from Iran’s Nuclear Program and Recent Regional Conflict
The 2023–25 conflict in the Middle East was the first regional conflagration in which Iran was a nuclear threshold state. In theory, nuclear latency can confer strategic benefits, as Iran’s adversaries could be deterred from escalation or pressure by the…
Negotiating Primacy: Strategic Stability, Superpower Arms Control, and the End of the Cold War
The United States successfully used the concept of strategic stability to tip the nuclear balance against the Soviet Union during the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) of the 1980s and early 1990s. Both superpowers sought to employ strategic stability to…
Technology Acquisition and Arms Control: Thinking Through the Hypersonic Weapons Debate
Debates in the United States about hypersonic weapons today revolve around acquiring hypersonic missiles and pursuing arms control initiatives, but concern about a hypersonic gap is misplaced and indicates a misunderstanding about the strategic trade-offs and…
Oil for Atoms: The 1970s Energy Crisis and Nuclear Proliferation in the Persian Gulf
The 1970s energy crisis, which rocked global markets and caused oil prices to skyrocket, had a number of far-reaching and unexpected consequences, many of which have become the focus of academic study in recent years. However, one topic that has eluded…