Preventing Black Market Trade in Nuclear Technology (Hardcover)

Every nuclear weapons program for decades has relied extensively on illicit imports of nuclear-related technologies. This book offers the most detailed public account of how states procure what they need to build nuclear weapons, what is currently being done to stop them, and how global efforts to prevent such trade could be strengthened. While illicit nuclear trade can never be stopped completely, effective steps to block illicit purchases of nuclear technology have sometimes succeeded in slowing nuclear weapons programs and increasing their costs, giving diplomacy more chance to work. Hence, this book argues, preventing illicit transfers wherever possible is a key element of an effective global non-proliferation strategy.

Matthew Bunn is a Professor of Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Massachusetts. His research interests include nuclear theft and terrorism; nuclear proliferation and measures to control it; the future of nuclear energy and its fuel cycle; and innovation in energy technologies. Before coming to Harvard, Bunn served as an adviser to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as a study director at the National Academy of Sciences, and as editor of Arms Control Today. He is the author or co-author of more than twenty books or major technical reports (most recently Insider Threats (2016)), and over a hundred articles in publications ranging from Science to The Washington Post.

Martin B. Malin is the Executive Director of the Project on Managing the Atom at the Belfer Center, for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School. His research focuses on arms control and nonproliferation in the Middle East, US nonproliferation and counter-proliferation strategies, and the security consequences of the growth and spread of nuclear energy. His recent work includes a review of strategies for preventing illicit trade in nuclear-related technology, an examination of Israeli leaders' perception of the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, and an analysis of the regional conditions conducive to the creation of a WMD-free zone in the Middle East. Prior to coming to the Kennedy School, Malin taught courses on international relations, American foreign policy, and Middle East politics at Columbia University, Barnard College, New York and Rutgers University, New Jersey. He also served as Director of the Program on Science and Global Security at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

William C. Potter is Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferation Studies and Founding Director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is the author or editor of over twenty books, including two volumes on Forecasting Nuclear Proliferation in the 21st Century (2010), The Global Politics of Combating Nuclear Terrorism (2010), and Nuclear Politics and the Non-Aligned Movement (2012). Dr Potter has served on numerous committees of the US National Academy of Sciences and for five years he was a member of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. He has been an advisor to the delegation of Kyrgyzstan at every NPT Review Conference and Preparatory Committee meeting since 1995.

Leonard S. Spector is Executive Director of the Washington, DC office of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies' James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. In his many years as a specialist on nuclear affairs, he has served as Assistant Deputy Administrator for Arms Control and Nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration, founding director of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Chief Counsel of the Senate Energy and Nonproliferation Subcommittee, and Special Counsel at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Mr Spector is the author or co-author of eight books and numerous articles on nonproliferation and comments frequently on this subject in the media.