The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 dismantled a highly centralized multi-national government, leaving behind 15 newly independent states, an economy in chaotic transition, and an enormous nuclear weapons complex. The sudden meltdown of the military structures that had managed the Soviet nuclear arsenal for decades left destructive weapons, technologies, and materials exposed and […]
Fact Sheet: Nuclear Terrorism: A Clear and Present Danger
Updated March 2021 Nuclear terrorism – the threat by a terrorist group to obtain and use a nuclear weapon, or to acquire enough nuclear material to create and use a crude weapon or dirty bomb – poses a serious threat to the United States and its allies. A Pentagon review of U.S. nuclear policy indicated […]
Maintaining the Treaty on Open Skies
By Abigail Stowe-Thurston President Eisenhower first proposed the idea for an Open Skies agreement in 1955 as a confidence building measure between the United States and Soviet Union. Although no treaty came of the original negotiations, Gorbachev’s policies of openness and transparency in the 1980s made the USSR a more agreeable negotiating partner when George […]
Is There a New Secret Side Deal With Iran?
Claims of a “secret side deal” between the IAEA and Iran are misguided.
Ask an Expert: Robert Einhorn on the 1-Year Anniversary of the Iran Nuclear Deal
Robert Einhorn is a senior fellow in the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative and the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, both housed within the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. Einhorn served as the U.S. Department of State Special Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control from 2009 to 2013 and participated in nuclear nonproliferation negotiations with Iran. […]
