A Next Step in Nuclear Arms Control: Securing Fissile Materials

On June 28, NTI President Joan Rohlfing provided commentary to a panel discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution featuring Richard Burt, chairman of Global Zero, USA, and Jan Lodal, past president of the Atlantic Council.  Burt and Lodal discussed their idea for a nuclear control regime, requiring that all fissile materials be securely held, which was laid out in a recent Survival article. Brookings Senior Fellow Steven Pifer moderated the discussion.

Rohlfing and the panelists engaged in a fruitful discussion about the political and technical challenges to Burt and Lodal's proposal, with contributions and questions from the audience.  Whether or not a control regime is the solution, Rohlfing highlighted the nuclear materials security challenge before us: "It’s critical that we begin to engage in a global discussion about how do we strengthen a system for controlling nuclear materials? We’re all hostage to each other’s material security performance."

Read the transcript.