PONI Awarded Carnegie Corporation Grant to Address Emerging Threats to Nuclear Stability

WASHINGTON, October 3, 2017: The Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is proud to announce a partnership with the Nuclear Policy Working Group (NPWG) at the University of California-Berkeley to launch a two-year project on the implications of emerging technologies and strategic stability. PONI’s grant was among eight awarded by the Carnegie Corporation to advance the field’s understanding of technology-driven challenges.

This project focuses on how rapid technology developments—including artificial intelligence, robotics, and advanced sensing—are expected to reshape situational awareness, crisis management, and strategic warning on the conventional battlefield, introducing new and complex risks to strategic stability in the nuclear domain.

“We hope PONI’s network of next generation experts from across the nuclear enterprise,” PONI director Rebecca Hersman explained, “will help policymakers better understand the risks and opportunities presented by emerging surveillance and strategic warning technologies and the impact these changes might have on crisis management and nuclear escalation.”

The study methodology incorporates policy and technological experts—both current and rising—from CSIS and universities to identify areas of priority that would have the greatest implications for strategic stability. Research will focus on responding to developments related to North Korea and China through scenario-based exercises, while also publishing analysis throughout the two-year grant on a new website.

For more on the CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues, visit

www.csis.org/programs/international-security-program/project-nuclear-issues.