Sidra Hamidi
The Nonproliferation Review and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) are pleased to announce that an article examining the George W. Bush administration’s policies toward the nuclear programs of Iran and South Korea, “A tale of two fuel cycles: defining enrichment and reprocessing in the nonproliferation regime” by Sidra Hamidi and Chantell Murphy, has won the Doreen and Jim McElvany Nonproliferation Award’s grand prize.
In examining the Bush administration’s policies toward two states with advanced nuclear fuel cycles, Hamidi and Murphy’s article also explores the various US and international definitions of uranium enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing. Its analysis draws on the concept of “technopolitics,” the study of the mutually reinforcing processes by which political priorities shape technological systems while technology also limits and creates new kinds of politics.
Chantell Murphy
One of the award judges praised the article for “mak[ing] an important contribution to nonproliferation literature by analyzing two case studies in a nuanced, balanced, and unbiased manner.”
Hamidi and Murphy said they were “honored” to receive the award and that it “represents a fruitful year of collaboration while we were fellows at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University” in the 2018-19 academic year.
Amy J. Nelson
The runner-up for the award was Amy J. Nelson’s “Innovation acceleration, digitization, and the crisis of nonproliferation systems,” which examines “new drivers of [proliferation] risk” that “are creating near-unmanageable conditions.” The article emphasizes the difficulty of finding a timely and comprehensive response to the “broader trend of technology outpacing its architectures of constraint.”
One judge observed, “It would be impossible to write an article like this without a deep and broad scope of knowledge ranging from expertise in new technologies to nuts and bolts of export control regimes.” Another judge commented, “This article comes at the right time as the rapid diffusion of new technologies presents considerable challenges for policymakers.”
Oliver Meier
The article “Upsetting the nuclear order: how the rise of nationalist populism increases nuclear dangers” by Oliver Meier and Maren Vieluf earned honorable mention. Meier and Vieluf argue that when “nationalist populists” such as Boris Johnson, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump are the leaders of states possessing nuclear weapons, they “undermine the nuclear order and increase nuclear dangers in novel, significant, and persistent ways.”
A judge praised the article for “highlight[ing] the dangers of nationalist-populist decision-making in the nuclear realm” while also more broadly serving as a reminder “of the rising dangers today in national security decision-making overall.”
Maren Vieluf
The prizes were awarded for articles published in Volume 28 of the Nonproliferation Review. The three winning articles are available free of charge until May 31, 2024. (The Meier-Vieluf article is permanently “open access.”)
A panel of three nonproliferation experts—Jeffrey Fields, Elisa Harris, and Togzhan Kassenova—selected the winners. The co-editors of the Nonproliferation Review organized the panel and tallied the votes.
Daniel Horner and Natasha Bajema, the co-editors, said, “We congratulate the authors of the three articles for the original analysis and insights they brought to a set of difficult and important nonproliferation issues. We also would like to express our deep appreciation to the judges for the time and thought they put into their task.”
About the Award
The Doreen and Jim McElvany Nonproliferation Award recognizes exceptional scholarly research, innovative ideas, and policy proposals published in the Nonproliferation Review. All authors and co-authors of articles and viewpoints published in the Nonproliferation Review are eligible for this prize, except current CNS employees and the members of the editorial board of the Nonproliferation Review.
The prizes for the winning articles are as follows:
- Grand prize: $5,000
- Runner-up: $3,000
- Honorable mention: $1,000
About the Journal
The Nonproliferation Review is a refereed journal concerned with the causes, consequences, and control of the spread of nuclear, radiological, chemical, and biological weapons. It features theoretical analyses, historical studies, viewpoints, and book reviews on such issues as state-run weapons programs, treaties and export controls, safeguards, verification and compliance, disarmament, terrorism, and the economic and environmental effects of weapons proliferation.
The Nonproliferation Review is produced at the Washington, DC, offices of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. The journal is published by Taylor & Francis.
