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 | In-class Project Discussions |
| 3/8 | In-depth Technical IV: Nonproliferation |
| 3/10 | Midterm examination |
| 3/15 | Nuclear Strategy of Middle Powers |
| 3/17 | Stewardship Science/Nuclear Testing; George Moore guest lecturer |
| 3/29 | US Strategy: Central/Extended Deterrence(Possible Guest Lecture) – B. Roberts |
| 3/31 | 21st Century Deterrence (Guest lecture) – S. Hingorani |
| 4/5 | Iran I |
| 4/7 | Project Discussion II |
| 4/12 | Iran II |
| 4/14 | Crisis Simulation |
| 4/19 | The North Korea Crisis I: U, Pu production |
| 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.