MIT’s Security Studies Program has received a $45 million gift from the Stanton Foundation to expand its leading work on the vital issue of global nuclear security.
The support will allow the program to create a new center on the topic while extending and enhancing research, teaching, and policy outreach in an area where the Institute is a longstanding leader with wide-ranging faculty expertise.
“We are on the cusp of a new and more dangerous nuclear age, with the modernization and expansion of nuclear arsenals, the collapse of arms control agreements, continued proliferation challenges, and the impact of new and emerging technologies on how states will manage their arsenals,” says M. Taylor Fravel, director of the Security Studies Program. “This new center will help us address these new challenges.”
Moreover, Fravel adds, “This has been an area of expertise within MIT and the Security Studies Program for almost five decades. We are enormously appreciative of the Stanton Foundation’s confidence in us to carry this vital work forward.” The Security Studies Program is also part of MIT’s Center for International Studies.
“The Stanton Foundation’s extraordinary gift capitalizes on MIT’s deep, longstanding strength in nuclear policy research. With this new investment, MIT can lead the way in advancing evidence-based nuclear policy in the best interest of our nation and the world,” says MIT President Sally A. Kornbluth.
The Stanton Foundation funding will enable the center to create three fellowships for junior scholars in nuclear security, hire new senior researchers, organize workshops and conferences, host international fellows, provide support for MIT faculty research, and seed other new projects.
“First, it will help advance policy-relevant research on all key challenges related to nuclear security that bear on this new and potentially more dangerous nuclear era,” says Fravel, who is also the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor in MIT’s Department of Political Science. “Second, it will help the next generation of thought leaders pursue their own research to help mitigate these problems. So, while there is a huge set of challenges, with the center we will have new resources to address them.”
Vipin Narang, the Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science at MIT, will serve as the center’s first director. Narang recently returned to MIT after a two-and-a-half-year public service leave at the US Department of Defense, where his last position was acting assistant secretary of defense for space policy, a role that included oversight of missile defense, countering weapons of mass destruction, and nuclear deterrence policy, among other topics.
“I am thrilled to return to MIT and help launch this historic center, which will hopefully become a central pillar in the world’s study and practice of nuclear security, at this crucial time in the resurgence of nuclear threats,” Narang says.
The Stanton Foundation was established by Frank Stanton, president of the broadcaster CBS from 1946 to 1971. Stanton’s involvement with nuclear issues began with his appointment to a committee convened by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 to develop the first comprehensive plan for the survival of the United States following a nuclear attack. Stanton had lead responsibility for developing a plan for national and international communication in the aftermath of a nuclear incident. The foundation has focused most of its philanthropy on nuclear security and on sustaining free speech rights while bolstering the spread of accurate civic information. It also supports work on canine health and welfare.
The Security Studies Program has roots extending to 1976, when it was first established as the Defense and Arms Control Study Program, before changing its name in the early 1990s.
“It’s always been an area where we’ve maintained excellence, especially with respect to the very core questions of how to bring about deterrence and stability, and how to counter the challenge of proliferation,” Fravel says.
Fravel emphasizes that the new center will draw on expertise from across the Institute. MIT has an array of nuclear weapons experts across its departments, labs, and centers, including SSP, the Department of Political Science, the Center for International Studies, and the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Over the years, explains Fravel, a special feature of the program has been the integration of technical and political analysis of national and international security problems.
“We look forward to leveraging all the expertise at MIT to help mitigate future nuclear risks,” Fravel says.
This story was written by Peter Dizikes and originally published in MIT News on September 4, 2024. Photo courtesy of Emily Dahl.
