NUCLEAR SECURITY: The Nexus Between Policy and Technology 2021

Recorded classes will be available on the NSSC Youtube Channel, and will be linked to on the syllabus below.

Publicly available required reading:

• Fred Kaplan, The Wizards of Armageddon (Stanford Press, 1991) (FK)
• Brad Roberts, The Case for U.S. Nuclear Weapons in The 21 st Century (Stanford Press, 2016) (BR)
• Vipin Narang, Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era (Princeton University Press, 2014) (VN)

The course syllabus follows:

Date	Topic
1/20	Course/Goals Introduction; Personal Introductions
1/25	How the US got the bomb I; Technical Intro 1: Energy, Nuclear Size
1/27	How the US got the bomb II
2/1	Technical Intro II: Fission/Einstein
2/3	Nuclear Weapons & the Cold War I; Tech Intro III: Binding, Fission
2/8	Nuclear Weapons & the Cold War II; Tech Intro IV: Concept of Cross Section
2/10	Nuclear Weapons & the Cold War III; Tech Intro V: Reactions
2/17	In-depth technical II: Reactors
2/22	The nuclear proliferation challenge and the spread of nuclear technology
2/24	Chain Reactions & Criticality, Rudiments of Nuclear Weapons Physics
3/1	Guest Lecture on Wargaming – Brad Roberts
3/3	INF Treaty – Manseok Lee
3/8	Rudiments of Nuclear Weapons Physics
3/10	Midterm examination
3/15	Nuclear Security
3/17	Stewardship Science/Nuclear Testing; George Moore guest lecturer
3/29	US Strategy: Central/Extended Deterrence(Possible Guest Lecture) – B. Roberts
3/31	Class Project Discussion
4/5	Class Project Discussion
4/7	Class Project Discussion
4/12	Iran I
4/14	Crisis Simulation
4/19	Rose Gottemoeller, Former Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs
4/21	The North Korea Crisis II: North Korea’s strategy (Manseok Lee)
4/26	Project Presentation preparation
4/28	Final Thoughts
5/10	Student Project Presentation

View information on the Spring 2020 course here.