William Potter

William Potter Standing in His Office

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

  • North Korea’s Withdrawal From the NPT: A Reality CheckNorth Korea's Withdrawal From the NPT: A Reality Check
    April 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 Cooperation
    The 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.
  • Tito’s Nuclear LegacyTito's Nuclear Legacy
    March, 14, 2000 William Potter, Djuro Miljanic, Ivo Slaus Published in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, http://www.bullatomsci.org/ March/April 2000 Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 63-70 © 2000 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Yugoslavia–at least in the eyes of the West–is regarded as a pariah state. But it is a pariah state whose predecessor, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, ...
  • The Mystery of the Sunken Gyros
    Many of the best-kept secrets of Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs involve Baghdad’s clandestine foreign procurement efforts since the Gulf War.
  • A US NGO Perspective on US – Russian MPC&A Cooperation
    While MPC&A has been successful problems still remain and efforts are needed to enhance international efforts.
  • The Case Russia Forgot
    Russia continues to fail in its enforcement of its regulations against missile exports.
  • Next Steps in Nuclear Disarmament: The Challenge of Tactical Nuclear Weapons
    Countries may seek to deploy more and have a greater reliance upon tactical nuclear weapons unless actions are taken to prevent this from happening.

View list on separate page

 

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.