December 17th, 2011

Stanford's McFaul is next ambassador to Russia

Michael McFaul, a senior fellow at FSI and President Obama's top Russia advisor, will be Washington's chief diplomat in Moscow. Read more »

October 23rd, 2011

Charles Perrow: How technology can nudge climate change politics

Writing in Bloomberg View, Charles Perrow says U.S. investment in carbon capture and storage technology could "induce China and Europe to follow suit." This "would allow the world time for renewable-energy technologies to mature -- to the point where we could do away with coal burning altogether." Read more »

September 15th, 2011

Stanford's Michael McFaul nominated as new ambassador to Russia

Michael McFaul, a Stanford political science professor, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Hoover Institution Bing Senior Fellow, has been nominated by President Obama to serve as the next ambassador to Russia. If confirmed, McFaul, who has also served as FSI's deputy director and director of its Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, will succeed John Beyrle. Read more »

March 14th, 2011

Scott D. Sagan: What the world thinks of Obama's nuclear policy

In a special issue of The Nonproliferation Review, edited by CISAC's Scott Sagan and Harvard's Jane Vaynman, 13 prominent researchers from around the world examined foreign governments’ policy responses to the president's 2010 Nuclear Posture Review, the landmark document published last April. Read more »

January 26th, 2011

Michael Sulmeyer: The Bob Gates management playbook

"Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates’ Jan. 6 announcement of major budget and program changes at the Pentagon was a watershed," writes Michael Sulmeyer, a predoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. "It canceled several multi-billion dollar weapons programs, redirected $100 billion from old programs to new ones, and laid the groundwork for reducing the active-duty size of America’s ground forces after a draw-down in Afghanistan. But in light of the rumors that Gates will step down sometime this year, his remarks soon after the announcement also helped to consolidate one particular aspect of his reformist legacy: managing our nation’s vast military weapons budget." Read more »

January 6th, 2011

Pavel Podvig: Offense and defense after new START

"New START is the last 'traditional' arms control agreement in that it exclusively deals with the two largest nuclear weapons states and their strategic nuclear weapons," writes CISAC affiliate and former research associate Pavel Podvig in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. "Further steps toward nuclear disarmament will require dealing with a range of different issues, and difficult issues in their own right -- from tactical nuclear weapons and conventional strategic launchers to nuclear warheads in storage and the arsenals in other nuclear weapon states. Success in dealing with these matters will depend on whether the United States and Russia find a way around a problem that will quite likely dominate the debate: missile defense."

• » Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "Offense and defense after new START"

April 29th, 2010

William Perry testifies before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Perry and James Schlesinger, both former defense secretaries, appeared at a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on April 29, 2010, to discuss ratification of the new START Treaty, which was signed April 8 by presidents Obama and Medvedev.

• » The Historical and Modern Context for U.S.-Russian Arms Control
• » Senate Foreign Relations Committee
• » Boston Globe: Kerry girds for fight to ratify arms pact
• » NTI: Key Senator Expects Tough Fight on Arms Control Deal