Seeking the Bomb: Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation

Abstract: Much of the work on nuclear proliferation has focused on why states pursue nuclear weapons, while the question of how has received little attention. Mr. Narang's book Seeking the Bomb is the first that analyzes this topic by examining which strategies of nuclear proliferation are available to aspirants, why aspirants select one strategy over another, and how this matters to international politics. Looking at a wide range of nations, from India and Japan to the Soviet Union and North Korea to Iraq and Iran, he developed an original typology of proliferation strategies—hedging, sprinting, sheltered pursuit, and hiding. Each strategy of proliferation provides different opportunities for the development of nuclear weapons, while at the same time presenting distinct vulnerabilities that can be exploited to prevent states from doing so. Mr. Narang will delve into the crucial implications these strategies have for nuclear proliferation and international security.

Bio: Vipin Narang is the Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science and member of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Government, Harvard University in 2010. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering with distinction from Stanford University and an M. Phil with Distinction in international relations from Balliol College, Oxford University, where he studied on a Marshall Scholarship. He has been a fellow at Harvard University's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, a predoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and a Stanton junior faculty fellow at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation. His research interests include nuclear proliferation and strategy, North Korea's nuclear weapons, South Asian security, and general security studies.