Earlier this year, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory hosted the first Introduction to Arms Control course in support of NNSA's Next Generation Arms Control Experts program.
National Nuclear Security Administration
September 25, 2023
minute read time
One of NNSA’s nonproliferation missions is to stay ready for future arms control and threat reduction opportunities. In that vein, earlier this year, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory hosted the first Introduction to Arms Control course in support of the agency’s Next Generation Arms Control Experts program (Next Gen ACE). The program is part of NNSA’s Arms Control Advancement Initiative, which launched in 2023.
“Next Gen ACE is a critical part of the broader Arms Control Advancement Initiative which demonstrates continued NNSA support for human capital development, foreign partnerships, and future monitoring and verification activities by engaging potential and new practitioners with current experts,” said Greg Dwyer, Director of the Office of Nuclear Verification at NNSA “This course is one of many programs we intend to support in the coming years.”
The weeklong course introduced university students and early career professionals to the fundamentals of nuclear arms control policy, law, deterrence, and the technical foundations of monitoring and verification. The course is intended to make the basics of arms control available to a wider audience and prompt students to consider arms control as a career path. It is one of several initiatives Next Gen ACE is developing to expand awareness of and training for future arms control experts.
The course combined hands-on learning with classroom lectures led by current monitoring and verification experts. Participants took part in a tabletop exercise on treaty development and got an up-close look at technologies under development for future monitoring and verification missions. In addition, participants engaged with arms control experts through panel discussions, which allowed them to ask them pressing questions on a variety of topics.
Participants were overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic about the course.
“This class was incredible and has the potential to be a very strong program to help [bring] qualified people into the field who might otherwise fall through the cracks or [go] into other careers,” one participant noted. “Keep doing it.”
Next Gen ACE will hold its next Intro to Arms Control course in July 2024. Click here to be notified when the course application is released.