CNS Founding Director
[email protected]
Monterey, CA
831.647.3511
Activities
- Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor
of Nonproliferation Studies - Founding Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS)
- Member of the Council on Foreign Relations
Areas of Research
- Nuclear terrorism
- Forecasting proliferation developments
- US-Russian relations
- NPT review process
- NAM nuclear politics
Background
Dr. William Potter has served as a consultant to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the RAND Corporation, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
He has been a member of several committees of the National Academy of Sciences, including its Nonproliferation Panel.
He served for five years on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters and the Board of Trustees of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research.
He has participated as a delegate at every NPT Review Conference and Preparatory Committee meeting since 1995.
CNS Work
- NFWZ ClearinghouseWilliam Potter, Leonard Spector, Lawrence Scheinman, Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova, Nikolai Sokov April 28, 2010 Introduction Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zones (NWFZs) are recognized as important tools of international nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. In 2009, both the Central Asian NWFZ Treaty and the African NWFZ Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba) entered into force. NWFZs now cover 116 countries including the entire territory of the southern hemisphere. The Central Asian ...
- OP#15: Engaging China and Russia on Nuclear DisarmamentOccasional Paper #15: Analysis and recommendations on how to place Beijing and Moscow on “the road to zero.”
- Central Asia Becomes A Nuclear-Weapon-Free-ZoneThe treaty was signed approximately eight years after the presidents of Central Asia first issued their joint declaration calling for the zone.
- Central Asia Becomes A Nuclear-Weapon-Free-ZoneRatification represents a nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation milestone.
- Uranium Smuggling Case: Nuclear Materials Still on the LooseReports of the seizure of weapons-grade uranium in Georgia raise concerns.
- Central Asian States Establish Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Despite US OppositionAn analysis of the development of the CANWFZ treaty, the opposition to it, and the implications of the newly established zone.
- Central Asian States Establish Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Despite US OppositionAnalysis of the treaty: development, opposition, and it’s implications.
- The Oslo Symposium: On the Road to HEU MinimizationIn efforts to combat nuclear terrorism countries seek to limit the civilian use of HEU.
- North Korea’s Withdrawal From the NPT: A Reality CheckApril 8, 2003 Jean du Preez and William Potter April 10 marks a significant event in the history of the 32-year-old nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Since its entry into force in 1970, the NPT has grown to 188 members and become the most widely subscribed to international treaty in history. That number will decline by one when ...
- Challenges in US-Russian CooperationThe United States and Russia have to adjust old patterns of thinking to new political realities in order to further cooperation on nuclear terrorism and weapons proliferation.
Bibliography
Books
- End of an Era: The United States, Russia, and Nuclear Nonproliferation (2021), co-authored with Sarah Bidgood
- Nuclear Politics and the Non-Aligned Movement (2012)
- The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism (2005)
- Tactical Nuclear Weapons: Options for Control (2000)
- Nuclear Profiles of the Soviet Successor States (1993)
- Soviet Decisionmaking for Chernobyl: An Analysis of System Performance and Policy Change (1990)
- Nuclear Power and Nonproliferation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (1982)
Editor
- Verification and SALT: The Challenge of Strategic Deception (1980)
- Verification and Arms Control (1985), and International Nuclear Trade and Nonproliferation (1990)
Co-Editor
- Once and Future Partners: The United States, Russia, and Nuclear Non-proliferation (2018)
- Preventing Black-Market Trade in Nuclear Technology (2018)
- Forecasting Nuclear Nonproliferation in the 21st Century (2 volumes, 2010)
- Engaging China and Russia on Nuclear Disarmament (2009)
- The Global Politics of Combating Nuclear Terrorism: A Supply Side Approach (2009)
- Dangerous Weapons, Desperate States (1999)
- Dismantling the Cold War: U.S. and NIS Perspectives on the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (1997)
- Soviet Decisionmaking for National Security (1984)
- The Nuclear Suppliers and Nonproliferation (1985
- Continuity and Change in Soviet-East European Relations (1989)
- International Missile Bazaar: The New Suppliers’ Network (1994)
Dr. Potter has contributed chapters and articles to over 130 scholarly books and journals.