Title: U.S. Missile Defense Programs: A Case Study in the Interaction of Science, Technology, and Public Policy Abstract During the past 70 years, the United States has spent $400 billion on ballistic missile defense, mostly on systems intended to intercept nuclear-armed intercontinental-range missiles that might be launched against the United States. But would these systems […]
Speaker: Dr. Stewart Prager This talk is part of the Twelve Thousand Bombs seminar series. The series on nuclear weapons included four eminent scholars and public figures speaking at ISU. The series, sponsored by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, was inaugurated in 2023 and aims to raise awareness of nuclear weapons issues in […]
Abstract In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the resurgent role of nuclear weapons in national security strategies, the threat that they pose to the public, and potential risk mitigation approaches. Recent events, including the U.S. withdrawal from arms control treaties and the pursuit of new nuclear weapons capabilities in the nine […]
Speaker: Dr. Stewart Prager More information will be available closer to the event.
Abstract China, Russia, and the United States are ramping up their nuclear weapons capabilities in a replay of the Cold War. We survived the nuclear confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union largely by luck. The close calls of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the War Scare of 1983 frightened leaders in […]
Abstract Eighty years ago, Robert Oppenheimer led an industrial-scale effort with more than 130,000 employees to create the nuclear fission weapons used to end World War II. With the United States and its allies facing totalitarian aggressors in the European and Pacific theaters, many elite scientists, engineers and technicians supported the Manhattan Project through their […]
Abstract: This webinar will share expert views on current and emerging crises and opportunities for nuclear threat reduction efforts in the United States, and introduce the near-term nuclear policy advocacy goals of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. REGISTER HERE Topics and Speakers: Moderator – Zia Mian, Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security, and […]
In May 2025, President Donald Trump approved the Defense Department’s architecture and implementation plan for "Golden Dome"—a multilayered missile defense system incorporating ground-, sea-, and space-based components designed to protect all U.S. territory from any scale of missile attack by any country. In this webinar, three physicists specializing in missile defense will examine […]
On 9 July 1955, Bertrand Russell delivered a public statement in London on the dangers of nuclear weapons. It was cosigned by Albert Einstein, in his last public political act, and has come to be known as the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. The Manifesto led in 1957 to the founding of the Pugwash Conferences for […]
Abstract A recent congressionally-mandated study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examined U.S. government methods for assessing nuclear war and nuclear terrorism risks, how those assessments are used to develop strategy and policy, and their limitations and gaps. In this webinar, the co-chairs and director of this National Academies study […]
January 2026 marks the 80th anniversary of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1(1), the first resolution to be adopted, which established a UN Commission tasked to “make specific proposals for the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons.” The resolution placed the newly created United Nations, international diplomacy, and international law at the […]
