On 8 May 2026 Pugwash and the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University’s Belfer Center held a side event titled “Preserving the NPT: When Nuclear Policies Backfire.” The session brought together five leading experts who contributed to a new MIT Press open-access volume, examining how core instruments of nuclear statecraft—such as counterproliferation measures, supply-side controls, missile defense systems, and related policy practices—can generate unintended consequences that complicate diplomacy, weaken strategic stability, and ultimately strain the Non-Proliferation Treaty regime.
Speakers:
Dr. Sarah Bidgood, Postdoctoral Fellow in Technology and International Security, University of California, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation; Incoming Assistant Professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Stephen Herzog, Professor of the Practice, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey; Visiting Scholar, Project on Managing the Atom, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Dr. Daniel Salisbury, Senior Fellow for Nuclear Arms Control, Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, International Institute for Strategic Studies
Chair: Dr. Steven E. Miller, Director, International Security Program; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs 