Elsa B. Kania In 1983, Stanislav Petrov helped to prevent the accidental outbreak of nuclear war by recognizing that a false alarm in Soviet early warning systems was not a real report of an imminent US attack. In retrospect, it was a remarkable call made under enormous stress, based on a guess and gut instinct. If another officer had been in […]
The Stanley Center, in partnership with The Origins Project at Arizona State University and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, will co-host a workshop to consider the risks and opportunities autonomous systems pose for international security. The workshop will assess the effects of these advances across a spectrum of military applications, including intelligence, surveillance, and […]
Anja Kaspersen Nuclear weapons have been around for 70 years. They are an old technology, and the norms and institutions that govern them are fairly well established. Emerging technologies, however, could create new problems for governance, disrupt those institutions, and force the world to rethink how to avoid the use of nuclear weapons. The Stanley […]
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), deep-learning, and robotics are enabling new military capabilities that will have a disruptive impact on military strategies. The effects of these capabilities will be felt across the spectrum of military requirements—from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to offense/defense balances and even on to nuclear weapons systems themselves. In this package, five […]
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), deep-learning, and robotics are enabling new military capabilities that will have a disruptive impact on military strategies. The effects of these capabilities will be felt across the spectrum of military requirements—from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to offense/defense balances and even on to nuclear weapons systems themselves. In this package, five […]
Douglas Birch, R. Jeffrey Smith The following story was originally published on November 12, 2015 by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, DC. The Fuel for a Nuclear Bomb Is in the Hands of an Unknown Black Marketeer From Russia, US Officials Say The presence of identical fissile […]
Marco Fey Oak Ridge National Laboratory Photo The defense industry and some countries’ armed forces recognize the great potential of additive manufacturing or 3-D printing. This is evident in the growing number of 3-D printing fairs, printathons, and defense dollars going to military applications of the technology. 3-D printing allows the quicker, cheaper, and […]
Melanie Sisson, Jennifer Spindel, Paul Scharre, Vadim Kozyulin Revolutionary technologies hold much promise for humanity. When taken up for military uses, they can affect international peace and security. The challenge is to build understanding among stakeholders about a technology and develop responsive solutions to mitigate risks. That’s where we might be today with military applications […]
Kim Zetter US Strategic Command With no concrete definition of a cyberattack or what might warrant retaliation in response to one, experts say we are only beginning to see the potential for cyberattacks and other exploits to disrupt critical systems and operations. Senior reporter Kim Zetter responds to questions on potential weapons systems vulnerabilities that […]
Kenneth N. Luongo The April 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, drew international attention to the threat of nuclear terrorism and the need to adequately protect weapon-usable nuclear material around the globe. It was an unprecedented event: the first such gathering of political officials to discuss the subject. The summit was a success in […]
The Stanley Center for Peace and Security amplifies the call to action published by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P) urging states to uphold the norm of Responsibility to Protect (R2P): For nearly two years, Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) have been subjected to an unrelenting escalation of atrocity crimes […]
Ashley Murphy Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters Due to a warming world, conflicts will become more common. Scientists, think tanks, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), militaries, and even the White House (albeit under President Barack Obama) all agree that climate change threatens human safety and well-being. Yet the organization charged with global security has remained relatively silent. The UN Security Council, responsible […]
Anthony Kasongo The story of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) began over 20 years ago. Since then, millions of lives have been lost and others have fallen prey to the country’s inability to protect its most vulnerable people. Most of the mayhem has taken place in the eastern region, home to […]
Numerous national security assessments have delineated the urgency of the threat of nuclear terrorism and warned that more needs to be done to ensure that terrorists never obtain a nuclear weapon or the materials that can be used to build one. In April 2010, President Obama convened an unprecedented number of world leaders in Washington, […]
Kathryn Dura For decades, the aging US nuclear enterprise has continued to crumble despite various efforts to curb the decline, including executive guidance and congressional funding. The system is now further strained by new requirements to build modern nuclear weapons and munitions to provide adequate flexibility in the current and future international security environments. Therefore, […]
Each year the Stanley Center convenes its Strategy for Peace Conference on policy challenges in key global issue areas with experts from the public and private sectors who meet in concurrent, autonomous roundtables. Each respective roundtable is intended to generate group consensus recommendations on the aspect of policy that is its focus.
Amy Niang, Photos by Will Baxter Will Baxter The Central African Republic (CAR) carries all the myths and markers of a failed state. Central authority has disintegrated. Competing armed groups have usurped state prerogatives in no less than two-thirds of the country. Law and order has almost entirely disappeared, and impunity prevails. Armed mutinies and […]
Each year the Stanley Center convenes the Strategy for Peace Conference on a wide range of US foreign policy issues with experts from the public and private sectors who meet in autonomous roundtables. These meetings are designed with an eye toward the future of American relations with the world. This policy memo provides a summary […]
Each year the Stanley Center convenes the Strategy for Peace Conference on a wide range of US foreign policy issues with experts from the public and private sectors who meet in autonomous roundtables. These meetings are designed with an eye toward the future of American relations with the world. This policy memo provides a summary […]
Each year the Stanley Center convenes the Strategy for Peace Conference on a wide range of US foreign policy issues with experts from the public and private sectors who meet in autonomous roundtables. These meetings are designed with an eye toward the future of American relations with the world. This policy memo provides a summary […]
As experts and officials gear up for the second Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Seoul, and in light of the recent G-8 decision to grant the Global Partnership an extension, it is a good moment to step back and assess achievements made thus far in nuclear and WMD security as well as the work that […]
How to Adapt and Repurpose Parts of the Iran Nuclear Agreement The Iran nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was not meant to set precedents. But nuclear policy experts at a recent roundtable concluded that some of the agreement’s provisions could be adapted and applied in other circumstances to […]
Each year the Stanley Center convenes the Strategy for Peace Conference on a wide range of US foreign policy issues with experts from the public and private sectors who meet in autonomous roundtables. These meetings are designed with an eye toward the future of American relations with the world. This policy memo provides a summary […]
Each year the Stanley Center convenes the Strategy for Peace Conference on a wide range of US foreign policy issues with experts from the public and private sectors who meet in autonomous roundtables. These meetings are designed with an eye toward the future of American relations with the world. This policy memo provides a summary […]
In August 2011, the Obama administration mandated the creation of a standing interagency Atrocities Prevention Board to coordinate a whole-of-government approach to mass atrocity prevention and response. As part of its 52nd annual Strategy for Peace Conference, the Stanley Center convened some 30 US government officials and mass atrocity specialists recently to discuss the prospects […]