The Institute’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding held the course in nuclear nonproliferation Sept. 26-30. And, for the first time ever, an undersecretary of state, Ellen Tauscher, spoke to an Academy class. Tauscher is the undersecretary of state for Arms Control and International Security Affairs.

October 3, 2011

Students from the departments of State, Homeland Security, Defense and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations are learning about arms control and nuclear nonproliferation as part of a series of courses hosted by USIP.

The Institute’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding held the course in nuclear nonproliferation Sept. 26-30. And, for the first time ever, an undersecretary of state, Ellen Tauscher, spoke to an Academy class. Tauscher is the undersecretary of state for Arms Control and International Security Affairs.

This was the fourth class held as part of the Academy’s program series on nuclear nonproliferation issues and arms control that offers an in-depth look at both sectors.

The Institute facilitated what was known as the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States in 2008-2009. The bipartisan commission took a comprehensive look at the U.S. national security strategy, the nuclear infrastructure and deterrent force posture. USIP’s Paul Hughes, now the chief of staff at USIP, was the executive director of the commission.

“The Institute, with approval of the board, concluded that nonproliferation is an essential element of our conflict prevention work,” says Mike Lekson, deputy provost of the Academy. “While others in the Institute are working on issues such as North Korea and Iran, the Academy has developed a number of courses related to this topic of nuclear nonproliferation and arms control.” The Academy also offers another course that offers an in-depth look at arms control issues, as well as broader overviews of the topic.

Explore Further


Related Publications

Increasing Information Access for the North Korean People

Increasing Information Access for the North Korean People

Monday, April 15, 2024

In recent years, North Korea has become more repressive, more impoverished and more allergic to the outside world. Already turning inward after the failure of diplomatic efforts in 2019, the North Korean government isolated itself further amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. North Korea has learned to operate, and Kim Jong Un has learned to rule, with greater levels of self-isolation than aggressive international sanctions regimes could ever hope to impose. Given North Korea’s current mode of rejecting even humanitarian assistance and its recent turn toward Russia, the chances for diplomatic breakthroughs with Pyongyang look like a wishful long-term hope at best.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

It’s Time to Resolve the Korean War

It’s Time to Resolve the Korean War

Monday, April 1, 2024

The greatest challenge to peaceful coexistence between North Korea and the United States is the technical state of war between the two countries. The United States and the Soviet Union may have been at ideological loggerheads, used proxies in regional conflicts and come close to direct superpower blows — but they were not in a state of war. Resolution of the Korean War should be set as a stated U.S. policy objective. This is a necessary Step Zero on the road to peaceful coexistence with North Korea today and could reduce the risk of deliberate or accidental conflict, nuclear or otherwise.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

Three Conditions for Successful Engagement with North Korea

Three Conditions for Successful Engagement with North Korea

Monday, March 25, 2024

The September 13, 2023, meeting between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un in Russia’s Amur Oblast marked a significant crippling of the decades-long U.S. pressure-based approach toward North Korea. The strategy of isolating and pressuring North Korea through United Nations Security Council resolutions to compel its nuclear disarmament in exchange for providing normalized relations, economic aid and sanctions relief may or may not ever have been a winning strategy, but now is no longer viable. The strategy required cooperation among the United States, South Korea, China and Russia, but this now seems a distant prospect.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

Building Trust through Health Cooperation with North Korea

Building Trust through Health Cooperation with North Korea

Monday, March 18, 2024

The United States needs to address the existing trust deficit with North Korea if it wants to coexist peacefully with that country. Trust building through health cooperation may be the least contentious way politically and the most likely to succeed. However, engagement on health and humanitarian assistance with North Korea, like security negotiations, has been undermined by geopolitics.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

View All Publications