Brookings Mountain West presents “Nuclear Arms Control: Challenges and Opportunities in 2013” a talk by Steven Pifer, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy.

U.S. nuclear arms control policy must address numerous factors, including our strategic relationships with Russia and China, the potential for future nuclear weapons reductions--including non-strategic nuclear weapons, and the offense-defense relationship, given concerns that missile defense developments could in the future affect the nuclear balance.  Washington D.C. must also consider its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, how to dissuade new countries from joining the nuclear weapons ranks, and what to do about the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the United States has signed but not ratified.  This presentation will explore challenges and opportunities facing Washington D.C. in the aftermath of the Cold War and following the 2012 presidential elections in Russia and the United States.

Steven Pifer is a senior fellow at the Brookings Center on the United States and Europe and director of the Brookings Arms Control Initiative. He focuses on arms control, Russia and Ukraine. He has offered commentary regarding Russia, Ukraine and arms control issues on CNN, Fox News, CNBC, BBC, National Public Radio and VOA, and his articles have appeared in the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune and Boston Globe, among others.  A retired Foreign Service Officer, his more than 25 years with the State Department focused on U.S. relations with the former Soviet Union and Europe, as well as arms control and security issues. He served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibilities for Russia and Ukraine (2001-2004), U.S. ambassador to Ukraine (1998-2000), and special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council (1996-1997). In addition to Ukraine, he served at the U.S. embassies in Warsaw, Moscow and London as well as with the U.S. delegation to the negotiation on intermediate-range nuclear forces in Geneva.