How should the United States prevent, counter and respond to terrorism related to weapons of mass destruction? Nickolas Roth will draw on his experience in supporting a National Academies study on nuclear terrorism and drafting of relevant legislation to provide an inside look into how research informs policy. He reflects on the opportunities and challenges along the full life-cycle of this effort—from its conception in legislation to how it was interpreted, implemented and ultimately executed. The project touched on a variety of overlapping security issues, from nuclear, chemical and biological threats from state-sponsored to the growing role of non-state actors.
About the Speaker
Nickolas Roth serves as a senior director on the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s Nuclear Materials Security Program team, where he focuses on reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism, advancing arms control and disarmament and strengthening institutions that support nonproliferation.
Prior to joining NTI in 2022, he was the director of the Stimson Center’s Nuclear Security Program, where his work focused on emerging technologies, domestic violent extremism in the United States and organizational crisis management. At Stimson, he was also the founding director of the International Nuclear Security Forum, the largest international civil society network focused on strengthening nuclear security.
Before taking on his role at Stimson, Roth served as a research associate and senior research associate at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Project on Managing the Atom, where he received a Dean’s Award for his work. His research there focused on nuclear security, U.S. nuclear weapons policy, arms control and the nuclear policymaking process. Roth has also served as a policy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists and as program director for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.
Roth has published more than a hundred articles, technical reports or book chapters on nuclear policy. He has worked on more than a dozen pieces of legislation that were passed into law. Roth’s work has appeared in publications around the world, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, USA Today and Asahi Shimbun.
Roth earned a Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland. He is currently a research associate at the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland and an associate of the Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School.