UNM Center for Science, Tech and Policy/NM Nuclear Study Group Workshop
The IAS-supported workshop on “What Role, If Any, For Nuclear Weapons?” was held on 11-12 September 2008 and organized by the Center for Science, Technology, and Policy (CSTP) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the New Mexico Nuclear Study Group. This workshop considered four questions central to nuclear weapon policy: (1) What role have nuclear weapons played in the past? (2) What role do nuclear weapons now play? (3) What role can nuclear weapons play? and (4) What role, if any, should nuclear weapons play in the future? The workshop was attended by over 50 scientists, engineers, social scientists, and practitioners from a wide array of institutions that included UNM, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Department of Defense, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The CSTP/NM Nuclear Study Group workshop contributed markedly to the broadening and deepening of IAS-funded work on threat reduction, a core IAS thrust area. It contributed significantly as well to the institutionalization of the Study Group; the forging of enduring collaborative relationships among Study Group participants from LANL, SNL, UNM, and New Mexico State University (NMSU); and the development of strategic relationships among Study Group participants and the community of national and international scientists, engineers, and social scientists engaged in related work. The workshop also provided a foundation upon which to build follow-on CSTP/NM Nuclear Study Group projects. Graduate and undergraduate students from New Mexico Consortium (NMC) institutions associated with the Study Group were provided a unique opportunity to participate in a professional workshop and interact with senior scholars, analysts, and practitioners from New Mexico and elsewhere.
Nobel laureate Thomas C. Shelling delivered the keynote address. Other featured speakers included George H. Quester, University of Maryland; David Alan Rosenberg, Institute for Defense Analyses; M. Elaine Bunn, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University; Hans M. Kristensen, Federation of American Scientists; Jeffrey A. Larsen, Science Applications International Corporation; Thomas G. Mahnken, Office of the Secretary of Defense; Joseph C. Martz, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Amy F. Woolf, Congressional Research Service; James E. Doyle, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Kerry G. Herron, University of Oklahoma; William C. Martel, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; Ivan Oelrich, Federation of American Scientists; and Andrew L. Ross, University of New Mexico. The workshop was supported by Sandia National Laboratories as well as the IAS.
Under the leadership of the University of New Mexico’s Center for Science, Technology, and Policy, the New Mexico Nuclear Study Group was founded in 2007. The Study Group has brought together scientists, engineers, and social scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the Defense Nuclear Weapons School, and the University of New Mexico in an ongoing effort to assess a range of U.S. nuclear policy and strategy, force size and structure, and infrastructure—research, development, and production—issues and alternatives. Study Group participants bring to bear the combined intellectual resources of two national laboratories and a flagship state university; vast scientific, engineering, and policy expertise; unsurpassed knowledge of nuclear weapons; an interdisciplinary approach that includes extensive experience working at the Science and Technology and policy interface; and access to and relationships with a wide range of government and non-government organizations. Andrew L. Ross, the Director of CSTP and a Professor of Political Science at UNM serves as the Chair of the Study Group.
The workshop program is available here
Contact:
Andrew L. Ross, University of New Mexico
Director, Center for Science, Technology, and Policy*
Professor, Department of Political Science
e-mail: aross@unm.edu
- The program formerly known as "OPST"
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