NPTS

Former U.S. Ambassador Susan Burk and Chilean Ambassador Alfredo Labbe participating with students in this fall’s arms control simulation course at the Monterey Institute.

Dr. William Potter, director of the Monterey Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), has pioneered the use of simulations as a tool for teaching students the intricacies of international arms control negotiations. Although many senior diplomats, including foreign ministers, have met with students in his classes at the Institute, this fall was the first time a former head of state participated in the course, and two ambassadors actually played themselves in a simulation of the 2014 NPT Preparatory Committee meeting.

Former Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva (see our story from 9/20/13) addressed student negotiators at the opening of the mock NPT PrepCom in September 2013, and Chilean Ambassador to International Organizations in Vienna Alfredo Labbe and former U.S. Nonproliferation Ambassador Susan Burk joined Chilean and U.S. delegations in November for hours of intense negotiations related to nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

The engagement of these experienced diplomats added tremendous realism to the simulation and provided students with unusual insights about negotiating style and techniques. Austrian Ambassador Alexander Kmentt also spent a week in October with the student negotiators and shared his country’s perspectives on a number of new disarmament initiatives under review in the class and in the “real world.” The simulation course is offered through the Institute’s unique Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies program.

Thanks in part to their unusual classroom experiences, many Monterey Institute simulation alumni have moved quickly from student negotiators to representatives of their countries in arms control negotiations in Geneva, Vienna, and New York. At the 2013 NPT PrepCom in Geneva, for example, over two dozen past and present Institute students and CNS staff and visiting fellows served as members of national and international organization delegations, including those of Burkina Faso, China, Chile, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Peru, Romania, the Russian Federation, and the United States.

Dr. Rosa Otunbayeva, former president of the Kyrgyz Republic, speaks to Dr. William Potter’s popular Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) simulation class.

Students of Dr. William Potter’s popular Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty simulation course were treated to a unique opportunity this week to have an intimate discussion with Dr. Rosa Otunbayeva, the former president of the Kyrgyz Republic who led the first peaceful transition from an authoritarian to a parliamentary democracy in Central Asia. She also gave a public lecture titled “Obstacles to and Opportunities for Modernization in Central Asia” in the Institute’s Irvine Auditorium and answered questions from the audience, including students of the MIIS Russian Studies program.

Dr. Otunbayeva shared with Monterey Institute students her significant experience from serving as president from July 2010 through December 2011, and previously as leader of the opposition. Before her election to the Kyrgyz Parliament in 2007, she had a very impressive diplomatic career in the Soviet Foreign Service and working as the president of the Soviet National Commission of UNESCO. During 2002-2004 she was deputy head of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on a peacekeeping mission to Georgia, before returning to Kyrgyzstan to take an active role in democratic changes at home. She currently heads the “Initiative of Roza Otunbayeva” International Foundation.

Monterey Institute Professor Avner Cohen is also a senior fellow with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

The Monterey Institute of International Studies and its James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) were pleased to learn recently that the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) has awarded a grant of $118,900 to support a research project on “Nuclear Norms in Global Governance” to be co-led by Professor Avner Cohen of the Institute’s Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies program faculty and Professor Maria Rost Rublee, a senior lecturer at the Australian National University.

The project will examine the role of norms in global interactions and suggest a framework for employing them to help both understand and shape international policies related to nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear energy. The two-year project is expected to culminate in the publication of a book of scholarly articles on the topic co-edited by Professor Cohen and Professor Rublee, as well as a series of briefings for policy-makers in Washington, D.C; Vienna, Austria, and Canberra, Australia.

Also a senior fellow and education program director with CNS, Professor Cohen is best known for his work on nonproliferation issues in the Middle East, and more specifically Israel’s nuclear policy, about which he has written two highly regarded books (Israel and the Bomb in 1998 and The Worst Kept Secret: Israel’s Bargain with the Bomb in 2010). Professor Cohen twice won the research and writing award of the MacArthur Foundation and was also twice a senior fellow at the USIP.

“My project co-director Maria Rublee and I are tremendously grateful to the U.S. Institute of Peace for supporting this important project,” commented Professor Cohen. “Our hope is that our work will ultimately offer new avenues for dialogue and research-based strategies for enhancing the international nonproliferation regime.”

A student and professor were interviewed by KSBW regarding Chechnya and Dagestan.

When the world woke up Friday morning to the news that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings were from Chechnya, reporters were sent scrambling for experts on both terrorism and the Caucasus region. And that search quickly led them to the experts—and students—associated with Monterey Institute’s unique Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies (NPTS) program.

A story on Central Coast-area NBC/ABC affiliate KSBW featured interviews with Professor Sharad Joshi and a student who, by coincidence, had submitted a thesis proposal just a week before the incident in Boston suggesting that U.S. authorities should pay greater attention to Chechnya and the Caucasus region as potential sources of terrorism.

NBC Bay Area (KNTV) also sent a reporter and cameraperson down from San Jose to interview Professor Joshi, resulting in a story that highlighted very effectively the value and relevance of the NPTS program.

The Institute continues to be a primary source for local, national, and international media when events call for the unique expertise of faculty and staff; on the same day the above stories broke, Professor Ray Zilinskas was quoted in an Associated Press story about the letters containing ricin that were sent to President Obama and other government officials. The AP story was then republished by more than 200 outlets nationwide.

Lovely Umayam (MANPTS ’13)

Lovely Umayam (MANPTS ’13) won first prize and was awarded $5,000 in the Innovation in Arms Control Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. Members of the public were invited to submit innovative approaches to using commonly available technologies to support arms control policy efforts, and the competition drew more than 500 submissions.

Lovely, a student in the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies program, developed “Bombshelltoe” (www.bombshelltoe.com), an online education platform that examines the intersection of popular culture and nuclear issues, in order to facilitate better understanding among the general public of basic nuclear and arms control-related issues. “In the nonproliferation field I’ve noticed that we take for granted some basic knowledge, like the difference between uranium and plutonium,” said Lovely. “But the public is starting with zero knowledge, and usually they get their knowledge from movies and TV shows and so forth.” She describes the goal of Bombshelltoe as being “to foster a more meaningful conversation about arms control issues” by exploring the intersection between nuclear policy and pop culture.

“Lovely is an amazing young woman, whose is equally adept in nonproliferation and social media,” commented MIIS Professor and Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies William Potter. “It is to her great credit that she has found a creative way to marry the two subjects, and by so doing, help to combat ignorance and complacency about one of our greatest security challenges.”

“Students come to the Monterey Institute because they want to work at the cutting edge of disciplines like nonproliferation, or translation and interpretation, or environmental policy,” added MIIS President Sunder Ramaswamy. “Lovely is a shining example of how our students are able to hit the ground running and have an immediate impact in whichever field they choose.”