CNS  recently welcomed thirteen students to its  Summer Undergraduate Nonproliferation Program. Student participants were selected from top schools, including Middlebury College, Brown University, Yale University, Occidental College, University of Georgia, College of William and Mary, Harvey Mudd College, University of California, Davis, Cornell University, and Smith College.

Over the course of the program, students will receive job training, work closely with CNS experts, and attend a lecture series on the spread and control of weapons of mass destruction and regional nonproliferation issues. The students will also be given hands-on training with new tools for nonproliferation. In addition to this training, students will engage in a diplomacy simulation on the topic of the Convention on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons led by Jean duPreez, a former senior official with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

In a new article for CBW Magazine, MIIS Professor Ray Zilinskas examines the threat of non-state actors weaponizing the Yersinia pestis, the bacteria responsible for the bubonic plague. Zilinskas provides an overview of the historical development of Y. pestis as a biological weapon, including by Japan and the Soviet Union.

The article goes on to address current factors that make Y. pestis a threat and whether or not it is likely that terrorists groups will be able to weaponize the bacteria in the future. 

A recent United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)  report titled "Negotiation of a Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty: Nuts and Bolts of the Ban" includes a new paper by CNS Director of International Organizations & Nonproliferation Program (IONP) Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova. 

The paper, titled "Provision for the nuclear-armed States' accession to the Convention on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons," examines options for nuclear-armed states to accede to the treaty at some point in the future, and also explores the consequences for verification. 

 

In a new report published by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), CNS Senior Research Associate Andrea Berger explores the UN sanctions regime on North Korea. 

In "A House Without Foundations The North Korea Sanctions Regime and its Implementation," Berger describes an "acute crisis" in sanctions implementation, as member states struggle with a lack of "awareness, capacity and political interest." Berger argues that these shortcomings must be quickly addressed if the UN sanctions regime is to succeed.