Working group 6: Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

The academic study of nuclear weapons focusing on questions relating to security and strategy faces a particular set of difficulties concerning secrecy. States lack the capacity to draw systematic lessons from past cases, and scholars have adopted different methods of studying these issues. As a result, the state of knowledge and “know-how” is scattered rather than cumulative. Furthermore, a U.S.-centric approach continues to shape research agendas and data collection.  

Against this backdrop, Working Group 6 will lay the foundation for a more cumulative and systematic approach. It will proceed with this effort through three sequential clusters: 1) empirical foundations, 2) past experiences and new tools, and 3) emerging challenges. We will pursue a comparative approach of studying past lessons, new tools and future prospects for nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation to facilitate a rigorous discussion and relevant outputs.

Dr Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo, and heads the Oslo Nuclear Project. She has previously been a Junior Faculty Fellow at CISAC, Stanford University (2012-13), and a pre- and post-doctoral fellow at the Belfer Center, Harvard University (2008-10).

Dr Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer received her doctoral degree from London School of Economics in 2010, which received the Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize from BISA the following year. She published Unclear Physics: Why Iraq and Libya Failed to Build Nuclear Weapons (Cornell University Press, 2016) based on her dissertation research. Her work has been published in numerous outlets including International Security, The Middle East Journal, the New York Times (online), International Herald Tribune, Monkey Cage and War on the Rocks.