NUCLEAR SECURITY WORKING GROUP - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Representative

Susannah V. Howieson is serving in the office of Representative Bill Foster (D-IL). Howieson has spent the past 8 ½ years conducting science and technology policy analysis for the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute, a federally funded research and development center that supports the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and other Federal agencies. She has worked on many topics relevant to the Nuclear Security Working Group and national security more broadly. Most notably, Ms. Howieson co-led the research team for the Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories (CRENEL), an assessment of all 17 Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories that was mandated by Section 319 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014. Other relevant work includes a review of the launch approval process for space nuclear power systems and an evaluation of DOE's Agreements for Commercializing Technology (ACT) pilot. Ms. Howieson also supports OSTP in its role on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Prior to joining STPI, she worked as an attorney at Sidley Austin, LLP in New York, NY, and for the Office of Climate Change Policy and Technology at DOE. Ms. Howieson has a BA from Rice University, a JD from Boston University, and an MEM in Environmental Economics and Policy from Duke University.

Blake Narendra is entering his second year in the office of Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR). A graduate of Colorado College, Blake worked on two presidential campaigns in 2007-2008 before moving to Washington D.C. He was an associate in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, worked as a Special Assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) during Senate consideration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Following graduate studies at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, he worked as a contractor to the U.S. Air Force in its arms control branch, as a fellow at the Ploughshares Fund and as a special advisor in the U.S. State Department Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance (AVC). He most recently was a press officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In his first year in the Senate, he led two bipartisan resolutions which successfully passed out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - on a civilian nuclear cooperation (123) agreement with Saudi Arabia and another taking stock of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on its "golden birthday" - in addition to other legislative initiatives.

Job Titles:

• Senior Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation

Colin H. Kahl is the inaugural Steven C. Házy Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and a Professor, by courtesy, in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. He is also a Strategic Consultant to the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. From October 2014 to January 2017, he was Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President. In that position, he served as a senior advisor to President Obama and Vice President Biden on all matters related to U.S. foreign policy and national security affairs, and represented the Office of the Vice President as a standing member of the National Security Council Deputies' Committee. From February 2009 to December 2011, Dr. Kahl was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East at the Pentagon. In this capacity, he served as the senior policy advisor to the Secretary of Defense for Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, and six other countries in the Levant and Persian Gulf region. In June 2011, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service by Secretary Robert Gates. From 2007 to 2017 (when not serving in the U.S. government), Dr. Kahl was an assistant and associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. From 2007 to 2009 and 2012 to 2014, he was also a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a nonpartisan Washington, DC-based think tank. From 2000 to 2007, he was an assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. In 2005-2006, Dr. Kahl took leave from the University of Minnesota to serve as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he worked on issues related to counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and responses to failed states. In 1997-1998, he was a National Security Fellow at the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University.

Job Titles:

• Director of IDA 's Joint Advanced Warfighting Division
• Director of Joint Advanced Warfighting Division, Institute for Defense Analyses

Daniel Y. Chiu is the Director of IDA's Joint Advanced Warfighting Division - a post he assumed in March 2017. Dr. Chiu leads a staff of more than 40 IDA researchers working to stimulate breakthrough improvements in joint military capabilities and concepts of operation with a focus on Joint Experimentation and Defense Innovation. Prior to joining IDA, he served as Director of Strategy at the Atlantic Council and Deputy Director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. He is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), where he was responsible for developing national defense strategy and guidance for defense investments in military force structure, technology, and non-materiel solutions. He led work for the Office of the Secretary of Defense on strategic planning with an emphasis on global trends in a complex, dynamic, and globalized security environment. He also oversaw the strategic analysis process, products, and community, using innovative methodologies and tools to assess and manage a wide range of disparate risks across DoD. Appointed to serve in the Pentagon in 2009, Dr. Chiu led work on the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance, and the 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Chiu had a long career as a senior consultant and analyst for DoD at the Institute for Defense Analyses, the Hicks and Associates Center for Adaptive Strategies and Threats, DFI International, and the Center for Naval Analyses. He has also served as a consultant to the Defense Science Board, leader of the Defense Adaptive Red Team, and as an adjunct professor of international relations and public policy. Dr. Chiu earned his BA with honors in Political Science from McGill University. He received his MA in International Relations and Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and his PhD in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University with sub-specialization in quantitative methods and Asian studies.

Job Titles:

• Retired Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute

Dr. Alan Platt is a retired Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and was previously a Principal in the Washington office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. His career spans almost 50 years, and has focused on foreign economic and international security matters, particularly the Executive and Legislative processes. Dr. Alan Platt is a retired Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he lectured on U.S. foreign and national security policy. For the preceding 18 years, Dr. Platt was a Principal in the Washington office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. Prior to that, he was Chief of the Arms Transfer Division of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the principal foreign policy advisor to former Senator Edmund Muskie, a senior staff member of The RAND Corporation, and a Fellow at The Hoover Institution. His work has focused on foreign economic and international security matters, with particular knowledge of the Executive and Legislative processes. He has written three books, including Arms Control and Confidence Building in the Middle East, and Congress and Arms Control, and more than 30 articles on national security and international economic issues. He has given lectures in more than 60 countries around the world. Dr. Platt received his B.A. from Princeton University, his M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Job Titles:

• Ford International Professor of Political Science / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• NSWG Member
• Security Studies Program, MIT

Dr. Barry R. Posen is Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT, Director of the MIT Security Studies Program, and serves on the Executive Committee of Seminar XXI. He has held numerous fellowship positions during his 40 year career, and specializes in security studies, international relations, international security, military strategy, restraint, nuclear studies and military doctrine. Dr. Barry R. Posen is Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT, Director of the MIT Security Studies Program, and serves on the Executive Committee of Seminar XXI. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2016 he was appointed Henry A. Kissinger Chair (visiting) in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress, John W. Kluge Center. He has been a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow; Rockefeller Foundation International Affairs Fellow; Guest Scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow, Smithsonian Institution; Transatlantic Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States; and a Visiting Fellow at the John Sloan Dickey Center at Dartmouth College. He is the 2017 recipient of the International Security Studies Section (ISSS), International Studies Association, Distinguished Scholar Award. He specializes in security studies, international relations, international security, military strategy, restraint, nuclear studies and military doctrine. His most recent book, Restraint: A New Foundation for U.S. Grand Strategy, was released in May 2014. He has written two earlier books, Inadvertent Escalation: Conventional War and Nuclear Risks and The Sources of Military Doctrine. The latter won The American Political Science Association's Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award, and Ohio State University's Edward J. Furniss Jr. Book Award. He is also the author of numerous articles, including ‘Civil Wars and the Structure of World Power' in Daedalus, ‘Pull Back: The Case for a Less Activist Foreign Policy' in Foreign Affairs, and ‘Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of U.S. Hegemony' in International Security. He received his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley in 1981.

Job Titles:

• Congressional Nuclear Security Fellow

Dr. Brooke Mitchell currently serves as the Congressional Nuclear Security Fellow in the Office of Representative Jeff Fortenberry (NE-1). Prior to this, Dr. Mitchell served as the Principal Investigator for Air Force Global Strike Command's Global Near-Peer Competition Concepts and Applications Workshop. She specializes in applied research and current efforts include utilizing scenario planning as a strategic thinking methodology for military planners and policymakers. Dr. Mitchell has a decade of higher-education teaching experience in graduate level public administration programs, is certified in Quality Matters instructional design, and holds a top-secret security clearance. She earned her Doctorate of Strategic Leadership and M.A., with an emphasis to terrorism and homeland defense, from Regent University and her B.A. in Communication from Centenary College of Louisiana.

Job Titles:

• How Americans Feel about Going to ( Nuclear ) War
• Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies / CATO Institute
• Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute

Dr. Christopher Preble is the Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, and also teaches the U.S. foreign policy elective at the University of California, Washington Center. His 30 year career also includes time spent as a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Navy. Dr. Christopher Preble is the Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. In addition to his work at Cato, Preble teaches the U.S. foreign policy elective at the University of California, Washington Center. He was previously the Director for Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. Before joining Cato, he taught history at St. Cloud State University and Temple University. He was also a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Navy, and served aboard the USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) from 1990 to 1993. He is the author of The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free and John F. Kennedy and the Missile Gap. He co-edited, with John Mueller, A Dangerous World? Threat Perception and U.S. National Security; and, with Jim Harper and Benjamin Friedman, Terrorizing Ourselves: Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing and How to Fix It. Preble has also published articles in major publications, including The New York Times, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, National Review, The National Interest, and Foreign Policy, and is a frequent guest on television and radio. Dr. Preble holds a Ph.D. in History from Temple University.

Job Titles:

• Distinguished Professor of Political Science
• Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Pepperdine University

Dr. Dan Caldwell is a distinguished Professor of Political Science at Pepperdine University and a member of the International Studies Association and the Council on Foreign Relations, where he chairs the Academic Outreach Initiative. He previously served for three years on active duty as an Officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He has a particular interest in American foreign policy, arms control, international security, and Russian-American relations. Dr. Dan Caldwell is a distinguished Professor of Political Science at Pepperdine University and a member of the International Studies Association and the Council on Foreign Relations, where he chairs the Academic Outreach Initiative. Dr. Caldwell served for three years on active duty as an Officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve and during that time held positions at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and in the Executive Office of the President in Washington, D.C. He currently serves as chairperson of the Committee on Student Veterans at Pepperdine University. Among the awards that Dr. Caldwell has received are Professor of the Year at Pepperdine University, the Charles and Harriet Luckman Distinguished Teaching Award, the Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs at Harvard University, a NATO Research Fellowship, and a United States Institute of Peace Fellowship. He has a particular interest in American foreign policy, arms control, international security, and Russian-American relations. Dr. Caldwell is the author of more than sixty articles, the editor or co-editor of five books, and the author of five books: Vortex of Conflict: U.S. Policy toward Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, the third edition of Seeking Security in an Insecure World (co-authored with Robert E. Williams), World Politics and You, The Dynamics of Domestic Politics and Arms Control: The SALT II Treaty Ratification Debate, and American-Soviet Relations: From 1947 to the Nixon-Kissinger Grand Design. Dr. Caldwell earned A.B., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Stanford University and an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Job Titles:

• Senior Fellow / Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
• Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies

Dr. David Kay is a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and a consultant with a concentration on counter terrorism and weapons proliferation. He was previously a member of the Department of State's International Security Advisory Board, and has served on a number of official U.S. government delegations and government and private advisory commissions. Dr. David Kay is a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and a consultant with a concentration on counter terrorism and weapons proliferation. Dr. Kay was previously a member of the Department of State's International Security Advisory Board. In 2003, while he was working at the Central Intelligence Agency, Dr. Kay led the search appointed by President Bush for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. In the aftermath of the first Gulf War he served as the IAEA/UNSCOM Chief Nuclear Weapons Inspector, leading numerous inspections into Iraq following the end of the Gulf War to determine Iraqi nuclear weapons production capability. He has served on a number of official U.S. government delegations and government and private advisory commissions, including the Defense Science Board, U.S. State Department's Advisory Commission on International Organizations, the Rockefeller Foundation's Advisory Group on Conflicts in International Relations, and the U.S. Delegation to the UN General Assembly. He is also the recipient of the IAEA's Distinguished Service Award and the U.S. Secretary of State's Commendation. He is an expert in matters relating to proliferation and terrorism issues, particularly weapons of mass destruction. Dr. Kay has frequently testified before Congress, and his articles have appeared widely in U.S. media and a number of scholarly journals. He also has been a radio and television commentator on nuclear and defense matters. He holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a Master's in International Affairs and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Job Titles:

• Assistant Professor
• Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the Elliot School of International Affairs
• Senior Associate Provost for International Strategy / George Washington University

Dr. Douglas B. Shaw is Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University, where he has previously held a number of positions. Earlier in his 25 year career, Dr. Shaw joined the White House Office of Presidential Personnel and held appointments in both Clinton administrations. His expertise center on nuclear non-proliferation, arms control, and disarmament. Dr. Douglas B. Shaw is Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He previously served as George Washington University's Senior Associate Provost for International Strategy and, before that, for seven years as Associate Dean for Planning, Research, and External Relations at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. He also served as Director of Policy Planning for Georgetown University, where he developed strategic initiatives to advance the university as a leading student-centered international research university. Earlier in his career, Dr. Shaw joined the White House Office of Presidential Personnel and held appointments in both Clinton administrations. He worked in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and at the U.S. Department of Energy. He was commended by the President for his involvement with the successful global diplomatic campaign to indefinitely extend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Dr. Shaw has also served in leadership roles in several prominent non-governmental organizations; including as Director of Security Programs for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Physicians for Social Responsibility; Executive Vice President of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy; and as Director of Communications of the Lawyers Alliance for World Security. He has also served on the Boards of Directors of College Bound and the Worker Rights Consortium. Dr. Shaw's private sector experience includes business development, research, and analysis for Worldrise, Booz Allen Hamilton, Liebman & Associates Energy and Environmental Consulting, and Numark Associates. His expertise center on nuclear non-proliferation, arms control, and disarmament. He has lectured on nuclear non-proliferation in venues including the Organization of American States and Harvard University; discussed security issues on C-SPAN and National Public Radio; and has been published in the Los Angeles Times, The Nonproliferation Review, and The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Dr. Shaw holds B.S.F.S., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Georgetown University in International Relations and Security Studies.

Job Titles:

• China Needs to Play Straight on New START Nuclear Treaty

Job Titles:

• NSWG Member

This article is a reflection on the evolving US-DPRK tensions throughout 2018. NSWG member Vipin Narang and Ankit Panda trace the highs and lows from...

Ian Merritt is serving in the office of Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), the founding co-chairman of the CNSWG. Mr. Merritt was previously a research assistant in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, focusing on regional geopolitics, military affairs, and counterterrorism. He has a Master of Arts in Security Studies from Georgetown University.

Jennifer Knox is serving in the office of Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-IN). Knox previously worked as a research assistant for Global Zero, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing nonproliferation and arms control objectives while contributing to crisis de-escalation. Knox is also a member of the 2018 Nuclear Scholars Initiative, a program by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She earned her Master of Philosophy in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where her research focused on multilateral arms control and institution-building.

Job Titles:

• CEO of the Council
• Co - Founder & President / Center for Climate and Security

Caitlin Werrell is CEO of the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR), and was previously Co-President of the Center for Climate and Security, and Co-Chair of the Climate and Security Advisory Group. She has a particular interest in the security implications of climate change, water stress and natural resource mismanagement in Syria and North Africa, and on the potential for new technologies for addressing climate risks. Caitlin Werrell is CEO of the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR), where she co-manages all of CSR's efforts, including the Center for Climate and Security, the Center on Nuclear Risks and the Climate-Nuclear-Security Program. Previously, Werrell served as Co-President of the Center for Climate and Security, and Co-Chair of the Climate and Security Advisory Group - the primary forum for climate and security dialogue in the U.S. national security community. Before that, she founded the MAP Institute for Water & Climate, and served as Senior Associate at AD Partners. Much of her work has focused on the security implications of climate change, water stress and natural resource mismanagement in Syria and North Africa, and on the potential for new technologies for addressing climate risks, such as additive manufacturing. Werrell's work has been published in ‘The Arab Spring and Climate Change', the SAIS Review of International Affairs, and the Brown Journal of World Affairs. She is a regular commentator on climate and international security issues, is a lead author of the "Responsibility to Prepare" framework, and has appeared before the UN Security Council. She has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and Defense News, and also on USA Today and CNN. Werrell holds a Master's degree from the University of Oxford, where she focused on transboundary water conflict and security, and a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College.

Omar S. Bashir is serving in the office of Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA). He was previously a Senior Associate at the Financial Integrity Network, where he specialized in sanctions issues and helped to build safeguards against proliferation financing, money laundering, corruption, and other financial crimes. He received his Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University and was a 2019 CNAS Brimley Next Generation National Security Fellow. At Princeton, he was a Fellow at the Center for International Security Studies, a Harold W. Dodds Fellow, and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Omar previously received two aerospace engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.Phil. in International Relations from the University of Oxford. He has published peer-reviewed work in social science and engineering journals.

Job Titles:

• Representative

Ian A. Merritt is entering his second year in the office of Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), a founding co-chair of the CNSWG. Mr. Merritt was previously a research assistant in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, focusing on regional geopolitics, military affairs, and counterterrorism. He has a Master of Arts in Security Studies from Georgetown University.

Job Titles:

• Representative

Travis Wheeler is serving in the office of Representative Pete Visclosky (D-IN). He previously was a research associate at the Stimson Center, where he researched nuclear deterrence and strategic competition in Southern Asia as well as managed educational initiatives. He has published widely on nuclear and strategic issues and co-edited several publications, including The Lure and Pitfalls of MIRVs: From the First to the Second Nuclear Age and the "Southern (Dis)Comfort" series in War on the Rocks. He was also part of the 2017 cohort of CSIS' Nuclear Scholars Initiative. Wheeler earned an MA from The Fletcher School and a BA from DePaul University. Abigail Stowe-Thurston is serving in the office of Representative Pete Visclosky (D-IN-01). Previously, she was a Program Coordinator at the Council for a Livable World, where she engaged congressional staff on U.S. nuclear weapons policy. She has also held positions at the Federation of American Scientists and the Friends Committee on National Legislation. In 2019, she participated in the CSIS Nuclear Scholars Initiative, and she is a member of the Truman National Security Project's class of 2020. Abigail has published analysis on nuclear issues, including in NK News, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Teen Vogue. She also has extensive experience studying and working internationally, including in Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. She graduated from Macalester College with a B.A. in Russian Studies.

Job Titles:

• Senior Fellow at the Center for International Security