Call for Proposals: Nuclear Futures Working Group

New America seeks proposals for research addressing two conceptual gaps in nuclear security thinking and policymaking. The first is between nuclear policy thinking, which increasingly exists in its own silo, and the conventional security, regional studies, and grand strategy approaches which dominate the national security conversation. The second is between the policy environment as traditional national security thinking conceptualizes it – dominance by state actors, unitary state decision-making, stable international norms – and the 21st century as it is unfolding, with non-governmental power centers that rival states, embattled international norms, and political and sociological struggle over which voices are heard in decision-making and how security is defined.

The Nuclear Futures working group will support emerging voices in the field to develop research that focuses on nuclear security policy problems through this broader lens of a changing global environment. The working group will comprise 6-8 selected early-to-mid career researchers and a small advisory committee, with the aim of providing a supportive community of practice, input from experienced voices in the field, and assistance moving work based on the research into policy debates through publications, panels, etc.

For the initial proposal, we ask for a short abstract (300-500 words) that identifies an important emerging or future challenge in the nuclear security field and proposes a creative policy solution to address it.

Here are some examples of topics that cut across the boundaries of nuclear policy, regional security, and grand strategy, though proposals on others are also welcome:

• How should China’s growing nuclear program, and Beijing’s attitudes toward arms control as it has been practiced, and the existing nuclear norms, affect US or global policy paradigms?
• What is the future of nuclear norms in a shifting global order? How do we understand the future of the NPT or the BAN Treaty, against the backdrop of decline we see in other core international institutions?
• What will strategic stability look like in the Middle East after the JCPOA? What could a follow-on to the JCPOA look like? What would a new non-proliferation architecture in the region look like, or is this kind of agreement even possible any more?

Working group members will each produce a policy brief (2,000-5,000 words) based on the submitted abstract that will be published as a New America policy brief. Additionally, we will work with group members to develop op-eds for media placement based on their policy brief.

We will host a virtual or hybrid-format research development workshop in June 2022 for members of the working group to share their proposal ideas and get feedback. Working group members will submit a draft of their policy brief by August 1st. Each working group member will receive a $500 honorarium for participating in the workshop, and another $500 honorarium upon publication of their policy brief.

Click here to submit your application. You will be asked to submit a 300-500 word abstract and CV as one Word or PDF document.

We will aim to notify accepted applicants by early April.

The Nuclear Futures Working Group is organized by Heather Hurlburt and Alexandra Stark, with the generous support of the Ploughshares Fund.