While the system of space-based solar power offers the promise of unlimited, "green" electrical power, it also has immense potential as a geopolitical tool.
Did the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future provide sufficient opportunities for public engagement? Three experts on participatory processes say the commission fell short.
The future of biological weapons control may depend on six countries -- China, Cuba, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia -- that have chosen to block progress on promising ways to counter biothreats internationally.
Much evidence shows that China bases a portion of its small nuclear arsenal in a vast tunnel network to shield it from a first strike. A recent study contending the tunnels hide thousands of nuclear weapons is based on simplistic reasoning and rumor.
It is unclear who is responsible for the targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists and engineers, but the attacks raise unique policy questions about motives, effectiveness, repercussions, and legal and moral standards.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan is a perfect example of how complex social and physiological realities are hidden from the world.
Looking at leadership change and possible future trajectories of North Korea's nuclear program.
How to spur innovation and reduce waste.
Russia has several legitimate concerns with NATO missile defense -- dismissing them is short-sighted and dangerous.
The Black Sea region is the center of the world's nuclear black market, and criminal organizations have become involved in nuclear trafficking. International coordination and law enforcement must be improved to prevent these organizations from working with terrorist groups.
Twenty-five years ago in Reykjavik, Iceland, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev walked to the threshold of a nuclear-free world -- and then turned back. The authors compare and contrast the geopolitical and diplomatic contexts of 1986 with today.
In 1996, the International Court of Justice issued an opinion that the use of nuclear weapons is "scarcely reconcilable" with international humanitarian law. And when the rules of war are applied, it becomes clear that these weapons cannot comply with international law.
In an excerpt from her book, Our Own Worst Enemy? Institutional Interests and the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Expertise, an American University professor explains how the US strategy of discouraging proliferation through job creation for former Soviet weapons scientists failed.
Governments regulate risky industrial systems such as nuclear power plants in hopes of making them less risky. Even so, some complex warning systems with catastrophic potential are just too dangerous to exist, because they cannot be made safe.
Pundits and politicians who use the latest IAEA report to attack the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate are distorting the information, at best -- and, at worst, are playing politics with national security.
In an exclusive interview, a former key adviser to top Iranian leaders says negotiation can ease the West’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program – but only if Washington and Tehran also talk directly about the other issues that divide them.
Pakistan's nuclear assets may be tempting targets for terrorists. Experts are split, however, on the actual threat posed. The author writes that the real threat assessment is yet to be made -- one that goes beyond merely considering assumed terrorist capability and putative vulnerabilities.
A Russian expert reportedly provided the Iranian nuclear program with important technical know-how. The US has tried hard to stop knowledge proliferation but had difficulty identifying scientists with critical weapons skills.