Project on Nuclear Issues

Founded in 2003, PONI is the premier networked community of next generation professionals prepared to meet the nuclear challenges of the future

PONI programs provide inclusive, diverse, and creative opportunities for emerging experts to learn about nuclear issues and engage thoughtfully with the nuclear community. PONI also conducts cutting-edge research and analysis on three main topic areas: deterrence and escalation, risk reduction and arms control, and disarmament.

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Next Generation Nuclear Network

CSIS launched the Project on Nuclear Issues in 2003 to develop the next generation of policy, technical and operational nuclear professionals through outreach, mentorship, research and debate.

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Integrated Arms Control in an Era of Strategic Competition

January 25, 2022 | Rebecca Hersman, Suzanne Claeys and Heather Williams

This study examines the implication and prospects for the future of arms control in a highly competitive security environment in which challenges from advanced technologies and diminished state control over processes of verification become increasingly prominent features, even as the scope and modalities of arms control grow more complex and multifaceted.

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Featured Event

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2023 Winter Conference

Please join the Project on Nuclear Issues for our February 2023 Winter Conference, hosted in Honolulu.

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Featured Project: Deterrence 101

Deterrence 101 is a collection of three thirty-minute long videos that explore core deterrence theory. Each video describes basic deterrence concepts, roots these ideas in a historical timeline, and features interviews with leading nuclear policy experts.

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PONI 2017 Summer Conference

The two-day conference will feature a series presentations from emerging nuclear experts, a keynote address, tours of facilities at Lawrence Livermore, and a breakout discussion on nuclear terrorism adapted from a ministerial-level scenario that will led by Corey Hinderstein and Heather Looney from NNSA. The conference will be off-the-record.

Event — June 21, 2017

Photo: ENERGY.GOV/Flickr (https://flic.kr/p/fz5StB)

Debate: North Korea's Nuclear Program

The Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI), Ploughshares Fund, and the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium are pleased to invite you to the third in a debate series on a range of nuclear challenges and policy decisions the Trump administration will face in 2017. The debate series aims to provide a forum for in-depth exploration of arguments on both sides of key nuclear policy issues.

Event by Rebecca Hersman , Paul Carroll , Melissa Hanham , Kelly Magsamen , and John Warden — June 20, 2017

Photo: ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images

Project on Nuclear Issues

The role that nuclear weapons play in international security has changed since the end of the Cold War, but the need to maintain and replenish the human infrastructure for supporting nuclear capabilities and dealing with the multitude of nuclear challenges remains essential. Recognizing this challenge, CSIS launched the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) in 2003 to develop the next generation of policy, technical, and operational nuclear professionals through outreach, mentorship, research, and debate. PONI runs two signature programs—the Nuclear Scholars Initiative and the Annual Conference Series—to engage emerging nuclear experts in thoughtful and informed debate and research over how best to address the nuclear community’s most pressing problems. The papers included in this volume comprise research from participants in the 2016 Nuclear Scholars Initiative and the PONI Conference Series.

Report by Mark F. Cancian — May 1, 2017

Project on Nuclear Issues

PONI 2017 Capstone Conference

The final conference of the 2016-2017 PONI Conference Series will be held on March 16 at United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM), Offutt Air Force Base.

Event by Rebecca Hersman — March 16, 2017

CSIS European Trilateral Track 2 Nuclear Dialogues

The European Trilateral Track 2 Nuclear Dialogues, sponsored by CSIS in partnership with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (FRS), has convened senior nuclear policy experts from the United Kingdom, France, and the United States (P3) for the past eight years to discuss nuclear deterrence policy issues and to identify areas of consensus among the three countries.

Report by Rebecca Hersman — February 9, 2017

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The Future of Alliances and Extended Nuclear Deterrence

A survey of the world today finds the nuclear landscape – from Russia, to North Korea, to India, Pakistan, and China – to be more uncertain and precarious than it has been any time since the end of the Cold War. Yet, even as nuclear dangers seem to be growing, there seems to be deepening discontent with the notion of nuclear deterrence. A growing chorus of voices questions the legitimacy of assurance and deterrence, fracturing what might have been thought at one point to be a consensus between allies. There also seems to be a growing skepticism about the benefits of the internationalist system on which deterrence, and especially extended deterrence, depends. We invite you to join us for a discussion on these issues facing the Trump administration.

Event by Kathleen H. Hicks and Rebecca Hersman — February 1, 2017

The Future of Alliances and Extended Nuclear Deterrence

The Deterrence and Assurance Conversation

As we survey the world today, we find the nuclear landscape to be more uncertain and precarious than it has been at any time since the end of the Cold War.

Report by Rebecca Hersman — January 13, 2017

Photo courtesy of White House: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/image_file/p033116ps-1374.jpg

PONI 2016 Winter Conference

The third conference of the 2016-2017 Conference Series will be held on December 6-7, 2016 at CSIS.

Event by Rebecca Hersman — December 6, 2016

Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force from http://media.defense.gov/2016/Aug/12/2001602870/-1/-1/0/160810-F-LP948-964.JPG