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Martin B. Malin

Mailing address

One Brattle Square 529
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
79 John F. Kennedy Street, Mailbox 134
Cambridge, MA, 02138

Martin B. Malin

Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom

Contact:
Telephone: 617-496-0432
Fax: 617-496-0606
Email: martin_malin@harvard.edu

 

Experience

Martin B. Malin is the Executive Director of the Project on Managing the Atom at the Belfer Center.  His research focuses on arms control and nonproliferation in the Middle East, U.S. nonproliferation and counter-proliferation strategies, and the security consequences of the growth and spread of nuclear energy.  His current work includes an examination of Israeli leaders’ depiction of the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, and an analysis of the regional conditions conducive to the creation of a WMD-free zone in the Middle East.  He recently wrote “The Effectiveness and Legitimacy of Using Force to Prevent Nuclear Proliferation” and contributed to the report “Limiting Transfers of Enrichment and Reprocessing Technology: Issues, Constraints, Options.”  He also serves on the editorial board of the journal Innovations.

Prior to coming to the Kennedy School, Malin taught courses on international relations, American foreign policy, and Middle East politics at Columbia University, Barnard College, and Rutgers University. He also served as Director of the Program on Science and Global Security at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He co-edited (with John Steinbruner and Carl Kaysen) the American Academy Studies in Global Security book series (MIT Press).  He holds a B.A. in Middle East Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz, a Masters of International of Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (where he served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Affairs), and has a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.


 

 

By Date

 

2012

December 2012

"A WMD-Free Zone in the Middle East: Creating the Conditions for Sustained Progress"

Discussion Paper

By Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom and Paolo Foradori, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program


How can the states of the Middle East begin to create the political conditions for achieving sustained progress toward the elimination of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons? This paper examines the challenges and obstacles that the parties of the region will need to overcome to bring a WMD-free zone into force, and recommends near-term steps for improving regional security.

 

 

2012

"The Effectiveness and Legitimacy of Using Force to Prevent Nuclear Proliferation"

Book Chapter

By Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom

This chapter examines instances in which states have used military force for the purpose of preventing or delaying an adversary’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.   What can be learned from past cases?  What are the barriers to effective military prevention?  Under what conditions has the use of force been successful in proliferation cases?  How is the policy perceived by neutral governments and what is the relationship between the perceived legitimacy of military action and its political effectiveness?  The chapter reviews all cases in which force was used to attempt to destroy an adversary’s nuclear facilities.

 

 

Press TV

May 28, 2012

"Prospects for a WMD-Free Zone in the Middle East"

Op-Ed, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

By Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom

As negotiations with Iran over the future of its nuclear program inch toward a possible deal, another intractable Middle East problem with a nuclear dimension is likely to start getting more serious attention. It is the question of whether there is any chance that Israel, Iran, and their Arab neighbors will agree to discuss establishing a regional zone free of all nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and their delivery systems. After decades of backsliding, proliferation, and conflict in the Middle East, the conventional wisdom says the current round of efforts will fail. I think the conventional wisdom is wrong.

 

 

AP Photo/Jorge Saenz

March 2012

Progress on Securing Nuclear Weapons and Materials: The Four-Year Effort and Beyond

Report

By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom, Eben Harrell, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom and Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom

On the eve of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, a new study finds that an international initiative to secure all vulnerable nuclear stockpiles within four years has reduced the dangers they pose.

 

2011

May 2011

Limiting Transfers of Enrichment and Reprocessing Technology: Issues, Constraints, Options

Report

By Fred McGoldrick, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom, Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom, Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom and William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Fred McGoldrick authored a report, entitled "Limiting Transfers of Enrichment and Reprocessing Technology: Issues, Constraints, Options" that provides an informed analysis and set of recommendations on how to strengthen restraints on the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies in a manner that would be acceptable to all Nuclear Suppliers Group members, and would be credible to the major exporting states and industry.

 

 

March 16, 2011

The Global Future of Nuclear Power After Fukushima

Op-Ed

By Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom, Yun Zhou, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program, Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Sungyeol Choi, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom, 2010–2012, Karthika Sasikumar, Former Stanton Nuclear Security Junior Faculty Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom, 2010–2011; Former Associate, International Security Program, 2008–2009 and Mahsa Rouhi, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan is sending shockwaves through nuclear planning agencies around the world.   Policy makers are asking for reviews of safety regulations, publics are expressing concern, and it appears likely that some of the planned construction will be curtailed. These commentaries offer sketches of how the discussion of nuclear energy is unfolding in key countries where plans for growth are most significant.

 

2010

The White House

August 16, 2010

"A Reset in the Middle East"

Op-Ed, Moscow Times

By Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom and Evgeny Artyukov

The United States and Russia must work together to reverse the deteriorating security situation in the Middle East.  Malin and Artyukov argue that Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev should announce they will co-sponsor a conference to establish ongoing negotiation of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.  The United States and Russia can turn today's Middle East crises into tomorrow's negotiating points, but only if they work together — and stay together for the long term.

 

 

www.raceforiran.com

June 8, 2010

"Four Reasons the US Could Get Israel to Talk About a Middle East Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction"

Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor

By Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom

Martin Malin articulates four reasons the US could get Israel to talk about a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, even in light of the recent furor over Israel's attack on the Gaza-bound flotilla in an Op-Ed in the Christian Science Monitor.

 

 

Photo by Martin Malin

Summer 2010

"U.S.-China Experts Meet to Strengthen Nuclear Cooperation"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter

By Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom

In mid-March, the Belfer Center's Managing the Atom (MTA) Project, together with Professor Li Bin of Tsinghua University, convened back-to-back workshops in Beijing on ways to strengthen U.S.-Chinese cooperation across a broad agenda of issues.

 

2009

December 2009

International Perspectives on the Goals of Universal Basic and Secondary Education

Book

By Joel E. Cohen and Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom

This book offers diverse views from Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America and from diverse cultures, religions, and professions, on the purposes of universal education. It is the first book in which renowned authors from around the world have confronted one another in proposing goals of basic and secondary education, and in considering and responding to the differing views of others on one of the most pressing issues facing education today.

 

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