Henry D. Sokolski is the founder and executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank promoting a better understanding of strategic weapons proliferation issues among policymakers, scholars, and the media. He teaches as an adjunct professor at The Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C., and at the University of Utah and has an appointment as senior fellow for nuclear security studies at the University of California at San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy.
Sokolski is regularly quoted by journalists covering nuclear issues. When Russia seized Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in 2022, Sokolski was quoted in articles in The New York Times , Reuters, and The Washington Post. [1] [2] [3]
Sokolski attended the University of Southern California and Pomona College and completed graduate studies in political science at the University of Chicago.
From 1989 to 1993, Sokolski served as the Deputy for Nonproliferation Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, for which he received the U.S. Secretary of Defense's Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Prior to this, he worked in the Secretary of Defense's Office of Net Assessment on strategic weapons proliferation issues.
In addition to his executive branch service, Sokolski worked in Congress from 1984 through 1988 as senior military legislative aide to U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee member Dan Quayle [4] and from 1982 through 1983 as special assistant on nuclear energy matters to TVA Subcommittee Chairman Senator Gordon J. Humphrey. [5]
He worked as a consultant on nuclear weapons proliferation issues to the intelligence community's National Intelligence Council, received a Congressional appointment to the Deutch Proliferation Commission, which completed its report in July 1999, served as a member of the Central Intelligence Agency's senior advisory panel from 1995 to 1996, and was a member of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD proliferation and terrorism, which operated until 2010.
Sokolski has been a resident fellow at the National Institute for Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation, and the Hoover Institution. He has taught political science courses at the University of Chicago, Rosary College, Georgetown University, and Loyola University.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and IISS and is on the editorial board of The Nonproliferation Review. In a detailed 2018 profile of Sokolski, Congressional Quarterly described him as one of Washington, D.C.'s key "influencers", a rare Washingtonian willing to play "a longer game." [6] The National Journal recognized Sokolski as one of the ten key individuals whose ideas will help shape the policy debate on the future of nuclear weapons.
Sokolski has authored and edited a number of books on nuclear proliferation, including Underestimated: Our Not So Peaceful Nuclear Future, (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2016); Best of Intentions: America's Campaign Against Strategic Weapons Proliferation, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001); Should We Let the Bomb Spread? Archived 2018-05-16 at the Wayback Machine , (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2016); Moving Beyond Pretense: Nuclear Power and Nonproliferation, (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2014); Nuclear Weapons Security Crises: What Does History Teach?, (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2013); The Next Arms Race, (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2012); Nuclear Power's Global Expansion: Weighing Its Costs and Risks,(Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2011); Falling Behind: International Scrutiny of the Peaceful Atom, (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2008);and Getting MAD: Nuclear Mutual Assured Destruction Its Origins and Practice (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2004).
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Between 1965 and 1968, the treaty was negotiated by the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament, a United Nations-sponsored organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.
In nuclear ethics and deterrence theory, No first use (NFU) refers to a type of pledge or policy wherein a nuclear power formally refrains from the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in warfare, except for as a second strike in retaliation to an attack by an enemy power using WMD. Such a pledge would allow for a unique state of affairs in which a given nuclear power can be engaged in a conflict of conventional weaponry while it formally forswears any of the strategic advantages of nuclear weapons, provided the enemy power does not possess or utilize any such weapons of their own. The concept is primarily invoked in reference to nuclear mutually assured destruction but has also been applied to chemical and biological warfare, as is the case of the official WMD policy of India.
William C. Potter is Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferation Studies and Founding Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). He also directs the MIIS Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.
Robert L. Gallucci is an American academic and diplomat, who formerly worked as president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He previously served as dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, from 1996 to June 2009. Prior to his appointment in 1996, for over two decades he had served in various governmental and international agencies, including the Department of State and the United Nations.
Ashton Baldwin Carter was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States Secretary of Defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
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Robert G. Joseph is a senior scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy and professor at Missouri State University. He was the United States Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation, with ambassadorial rank. Prior to this post, Joseph was the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, a position he held until January 24, 2007. Joseph is known for being instrumental in creating the Proliferation Security Initiative and as the architect of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. He was also the US chief negotiator to Libya in 2003 who convinced the Libyans to give up their WMD programs. He also recently authored a book describing his experience in negotiating with Libya entitled "Countering WMD."
Arnold Kramish was an American nuclear physicist and author who was associated with the Manhattan Project. While working on the project, he was nearly killed in an accident at the Philadelphia Naval Yard where a prototype thermal diffusion isotope separation device was being constructed. The priest of the Philadelphia Naval Yard offered last rites to Kramish, who refused, as he was Jewish. After World War II, he wrote numerous books on nuclear issues. He is perhaps best known for his book The Griffin - the greatest untold espionage story of World War II, about Paul Rosbaud, who passed important scientific and military information from Germany to the Allies.
Avner Cohen is an Israeli writer, historian, and professor. He is well known for his works on Israel's nuclear history and strategic policy. He is currently a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and the Director of the Education Program and Senior Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
Saudi Arabia is not known to have a nuclear weapons program. From an official and public standpoint, Saudi Arabia has been an opponent of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, having signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and is a member of the coalition of countries demanding a Nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. Studies of nuclear proliferation have not identified Saudi Arabia as a country of concern. Nuclear technology company IP3 International was formed in June 2016 to transfer nuclear technology from the United States to Saudi Arabia.
Francis J. Gavin is an American historian currently serving as the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is also the chairman of the Board of Editors for the Texas National Security Review.
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Kenneth A. Myers III was the fourth and longest serving director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), from September 2009 to March 2016. DTRA is the intellectual, technical and operational leader for the Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) in the national effort to combat the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threat. Myers is also dual-hatted as the director of the USSTRATCOM Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction. The center integrates and synchronizes DoD-wide efforts in support of the combating WMD mission.
The 2010 Review Conference for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City from 3 to 28 May 2010. The President of the Review Conference is Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan of the Philippines. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used the opening of the conference to note that "sixty five years later, the world still lives under the nuclear shadow".
Christopher Ashley Ford is an American lawyer and government official who served from January 2018 until January 2021 as Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation. He was nominated to that position by President Donald Trump, and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on December 21, 2017. After October 21, 2019, Ford also, by delegation from Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, performed the duties of the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security until his resignation from the Department of State on January 8, 2021.
Ambassador Ronald Frank Lehman II is currently Director of the Center for Global Security Research at the United States Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is also Chair of the Governing Board of International Science and Technology Center, an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Moscow and is a member of the Department of Defense Threat Reduction Advisory Committee.
Thomas Graham Jr. is a former senior U.S. diplomat. Graham was involved in the negotiation of every single international arms control and non-proliferation agreement from 1970 to 1997. This includes the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties, the Anti-ballistic missile (ABM) Treaty, Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) Treaty, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT), Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty and Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). In 1993, Ambassador Graham served as acting director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) from January to November, 1993 and Acting Deputy Director from November, 1993 to July, 1994. From 1994 through 1997, he was president Bill Clinton's special representative for Arms Control, Non-Proliferation, and Disarmament. Graham successfully led the U.S. government efforts to achieve the permanent extension of the NPT in 1995. Graham also served for 15 years as the general counsel of ACDA. Throughout his career, Thomas Graham has worked with six U.S. Presidents including Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. Ambassador Graham worked on the negotiation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention and managed the Senate approval of the ratification of the Geneva Protocol banning the use of chemical and biological weapons in war, as well as the Biological Weapons Convention.
Jeffrey Lewis is an American expert in nuclear nonproliferation and geopolitics, currently a professor at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and director of the CNS East Asia Nonproliferation Program. He has written two books on China's nuclear weapons, and numerous journal and magazine articles, blog posts, and podcasts on nonproliferation and related topics.
Matthew Kroenig is an American political scientist, author, national security strategist. He is professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Kroenig is best known for his research on international security and nuclear weapons.
Kathleen Cordelia Bailey is an American political scientist and artist. She served as deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and as assistant director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. She is a senior associate at the National Institute for Public Policy in Washington, D.C.