Science & Global Security
The Program on Science and Global Security (SGS), based at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, has carried out research and policy analysis and education and training in nuclear arms control and nonproliferation for more than three decades.
SGS has developed the analytical basis for policy initiatives within several important areas:
- Reducing the danger from nuclear weapons and nuclear materials;
- Nuclear threat reduction in South Asia;
- Improving biological security, both with respect to dual-use biotechnology and naturally occurring disease; and
- Space security
SGS provides research and administrative support to the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), a group of independent nuclear experts from 17 nuclear-weapon and non-weapon states. The Panel’s mission is to educate interested governments on the technical basis for practical and achievable policy initiatives to secure, consolidate, and reduce stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. The Panel is co-chaired by R. Rajaraman of Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, and Frank von Hippel.
SGS provides training opportunities for post-doctoral and senior scientists interested in science and security as well as for Princeton undergraduate and graduate students. SGS has helped train technical nuclear arms control and nonproliferation researchers in Russia, China, India and Pakistan and facilitated the establishment of counterpart programs in China and Russia. The resulting network over the years has allowed the Program to contribute to the nuclear policy debates in a number of countries.
Faculty and researchers of SGS teach science and security courses and policy workshops for Princeton undergraduate and graduate students. Students with undergraduate or master’s degrees in science or engineering can pursue PhDs with SGS by applying to the Woodrow Wilson School’s International Security or Science, Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) clusters.
SGS also has a fellowship program that enables Princeton science or engineering graduate students to carry out a science and security research project with us while they are pursuing PhDs in their home departments.
The Program is the editorial home of Science & Global Security, the leading international journal of “arms control science.” For many science and security researchers, it is the only venue for peer-reviewed publication of technical security studies. It has become an essential institution in the field of science-based security studies. It is published in Russian and Chinese, as well as in English.
SGS, for its first 25 years, was part of the Princeton University Center for Energy and Environmental Studies (CEES) in the Princeton Engineering School, before joining the Woodrow Wilson School in 2001. CEES research reports from those years are on-line.
SGS is directed by Professor Christopher Chyba. Hal Feiveson and Frank von Hippel co-directed the Program from 1974 to 2006. Feiveson and von Hippel continue their research and teaching as members of the Program. The SGS research staff also includes: Zia Mian, who directs the SGS Project on Peace and Security in South Asia; Laura Kahn, MD, who works on biodefense, biotechnology and public health issues; Alexander Glaser, who is an expert on nuclear-reactor and fissile-material issues, and M.V. Ramana, who works on South Asia nuclear issues and nuclear energy more generally.
