Call for NPEC Nuclear Public Policy Fellowship Applications 2024

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

Fall 2024

The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC) Public Policy Fellowship is designed to give congressional, executive, and diplomatic staff and journalists the scientific, technological, legal, and historical background needed to gain a deeper understanding of civil and military nuclear policy. The program aims to cultivate a bipartisan community of practical experts focused on nuclear policy issues. Applications will be taken from full-time legislative directors, legislative assistants, legislative correspondents, and professional committee staff members in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate; executive branch staffers in intelligence, defense, and foreign affairs; full-time military, fellows detailed to the Hill or the executive branch; diplomatic staff; and journalists.

Fellowship Description: NPEC will hold eleven lunchtime seminars between September and November 2024. Sessions are held on Friday afternoons. To receive a course completion certificate requires attendance of seven or more of the eleven seminars. Four of these seven must include specified priority lectures. Individuals who complete the program will also have the opportunity to participate in an intensive retreat in early 2025. All events will take place virtually. The seminars are taught by Henry Sokolski, executive director of NPEC, former Deputy for Nonproliferation Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and military senate legislative assistant and special assistant for nuclear energy policy.

Application: Applicants should submit a current resume and a cover letter (no longer than two pages). The cover letter should explain the applicant’s interest in the seminars and how the seminars would help them do their jobs. The application should also include contact details for a recommender. Apply here or via email to brooke@npolicy.org. Applications for the Fall 2024 session of the NPEC Public Policy Fellowship must be submitted by 5:00 PM ET on July 26, 2024, for early notification and acceptance, and by 5:00 PM ET on August 16, 2024, for regular decision. Only complete applications will be considered.

Tentative Schedule: An opening reception is being planned for the first week of September. All eleven seminars will be held virtually on Fridays from 12:00 PM ET – 2:00 PM ET. Participants are expected to attend seven or more seminars, and at least four must be priority topics. Priority topics are denoted by an asterisk (*).

• Sept. 6 City Busting, the Nuclear Weapons Revolution, and Precision Guidance*

• Sept. 13 Nuclear Deterrence

• Sept. 20 Nuclear Energy Basics: Fission, Fusion, and Bomb Designs (Part 1)*

• Sept. 27 Nuclear Energy Basics: Fission, Fusion, and Bomb Designs (Part 2)*

• Oct. 4 Nuclear Energy Basics: Reactors and Nuclear Fuel Making*

• Oct. 11 Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime: Its History and Key Premises (Part 1)*

• Oct. 18 Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime: Its History and Key Premises (Part 2)*

• Oct. 25 Arms Control

• Nov. 1 Energy Economics: Nuclear and Non-Nuclear

• Nov. 8 Nuclear Terrorism & Nuclear Proliferation Intelligence

• Nov. 15 Thinking about the Next Arms Race*

In between formal required lectures, several optional, additional guest lectures will be held at 5 PM ET on the following days. Please note the following are last year’s presenters and are subject to change.

- Sept. 5 Paul Bracken: The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics
- Sept. 9 Jim Thomas: The World Replete with Advanced Precision Strike Weapons
- Sept. 16 Brent Ziarnick: How Space Power Theory Affects One’s Deterrence Outlook || Jake Bebber: How Might We Deter China?
- Sept. 23 Gregory Jones: More Than Fissile Material: Building a Bomb, The Historical Experience
- Sept. 30 Bruce Goodwin: Reactor-Grade Plutonium’s Weapons Utility
- Oct. 7 Henry Sokolski: Reactors in Warzones: What Could Go Wrong
- Oct. 15 Thomas Grant: Articles I, II, and VI: New Issues for the NPT
- Oct. 21 Eva Lisowski: Grim Prospect: Low-Yield Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East
- Oct. 38 Brian Chow: Technical and Policy Responses to Rendezvous Spacecraft and Ground-Based Laser ASAT
- Nov. 4 Peter Bradford: How Should Small Reactor Accidents Be Insured?
- Nov. 12 William Tobey: Libya As a Nuclear Nonproliferation Intelligence Success || Richard Lawless: Success in Turning Off the South Korean Program in the 1970s

Seminars will address the following questions:

How militarily significant was the nuclear weapons revolution and why, initially, did developing ever larger nuclear weapons seem logical? How did the advent of precision guidance constitute a counterrevolution, and how has this counterrevolution affected nuclear weapons deployments?
What is nuclear deterrence, what does a robust nuclear deterrent force require, and how can it be counted upon to assure security?
What does one need to know about the discovery of nuclear energy, the development of nuclear weapons and their design, and the production of nuclear weapons-usable fuels
How likely might civilian nuclear technology be used for military purposes?
How safeguardable are different civilian nuclear facilities and materials against possible military diversions?
What are the key premises and history behind the current nuclear rules, i.e.: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), The Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and the U.S. Atomic Energy Act?
How has U.S. strategic force modernization and arms control been related to one another?
What might a Trumpian arms control agenda look like?
How well does nuclear energy perform economically in producing electricity as compared to its nonnuclear alternatives?
Is terrorism the most immediate and extreme threat we face? How likely is it that terrorists might use nuclear weapons or dirty bombs? How preventable is this threat?
What was the Cold War approach to gathering and using intelligence on nuclear proliferation and what might be a more sensible approach for preventing nuclear proliferation today?
Why did the United States and Russia reduce their nuclear weapons stockpiles by nearly an order of magnitude in the last 30 years?
What might the next arms race look like and what, if anything, can be done to reduce the dangers the next arms race might present?
What are the major schools of thought regarding nuclear weapons, their use, and their proliferation? How sound are these schools?
What are the nuclear proliferation trends of the last half century? What is likely to occur over the next three decades?
Are there arms control and nonproliferation initiatives beyond what the United States has supported that might help reverse these trends?

SUBMIT AN APPLICATION HERE Early Decision Deadline: 5:00 PM ET on July 26, 2024, Regular Decision Deadline: 5:00 PM ET on August 16, 2024.

Praise for NEPC’s Fellowship:

It was an absolute pleasure having you preside over this course, and being a student under your direct tutelage. What intrigued me the most is how we managed to cover topics at the 10,000-foot policy level, to the very technical aspects in two short months. That’s nearly impossible in academia! We also had a very good range of professionals with whom we could network, especially at a time of great distance and remote activity. I hope to use this knowledge and understanding in future policy areas.

– Craig Stafford Foreign Affairs Officer, U.S. Department of State

Let me say that the class was fantastic. Prior to the fellowship my knowledge of nuclear issues was pretty one-dimensional. There were nuclear weapons, a treaty or two, and vague guidance on when/how the U.S. might use them. Done. I’d never considered the implications seemingly tangential issues such as civil nuclear power (outside of environmental concerns), the economics of nuclear power, or the electric grid. Drawing the connection between civil and military nuclear applications was especially eye opening for me. Also, as a non-STEM person, learning about bomb design, the enrichment process and power plant design was completely new. Truthfully I did wonder how useful the technical information would be for me in my work but all of the learning brought so much depth and understanding to issues I encounter on the job. I just really loved the whole class.

– Felicia Lopez Senior Attorney, GAO

I appreciated the scope of the course. Because of the extensive topics it covers, I felt like I received a liberal arts education in the nuclear world. Not just nonproliferation regimes but also nuclear terrorism and nuclear economics and the science behind it all. As a policy influencer, that is a huge benefit; I can now pursue my own separate lines of inquiry with some steady footing. So much of life is understanding enough of a subject to begin to know how to ask the right questions, and now I can. That’s the crux of how I benefited and what the course provides.

– Ryan Uyehara Office of Rep. Ami Bera

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the NPEC fellowship program. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was an absolutely rewarding experience. Is it indicative of a twisted mind that I attended every session (and both optional dinnertime discussions)? Perhaps. But I found the material and the lectures so compelling that I genuinely would have felt cheated to miss any of them…Sometimes it’s not easy to convince experts in the nuclear field to talk to a reporter. Already, I’m seeing a difference in their willingness to talk with me because, after some conversation, it becomes apparent to them that I’m not as clueless about the topic as they first imagined. That might not have been the case just a few months ago before I took your course.

– Patrick Malone Center for Public Integrity

I came into the fellowship with only a basic understanding of aspects of non-proliferation, so the course was EXACTLY what I needed to help me understand not only how nuclear weapons are made and used,

So, from my perspective, the course did everything I had hoped it would do to prepare me to understand what I’m reading when different opinions are presented — your class also invited me to challenge authority when it comes to accepted norms of deterrence, nuclear weapons, proliferation (and non-proliferation), and research more when something just doesn’t seem right — or seems too easy.

– CDR Daniel G. Straub U.S. Navy

Any civil servant working in nuclear matters can benefit immensely from the NPEC Fellowship. I haven’t seen anything else like it offered in the D.C. area and I would recommend it to anyone whose work touches on nuclear matters.

– Robert Grace Senior Analyst, Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation, U.S. Government Accountability Office

To read more praise about the fellowship, CLICK HERE.

What Congressional Quarterly says about the Fellowship:
“A former top nuclear nonproliferation figure at the Pentagon during the George Bush administration, Sokolski has held multiple senior positions on Capitol Hill and been a member of several blue-ribbon national security commissions. But his greatest pride and enjoyment is in the work he does now, running a graduate-level course for young and mid-career professionals working on Capitol Hill, in the federal government, at foreign embassies and in journalism.

Sokolski began offering his public policy fellowship, which is funded by various foundations, in 2013 but says he really began teaching variations of the course 40 years ago at the University of Chicago. As he has tinkered with the course over the years and added more complex material to it on topics like nuclear fission and bomb design, Sokolski says he’s pleased it hasn’t scared away applicants. ‘They keep coming,’ he chortles.

About 150 people have gone through Sokolski’s fellowship and are now seeded throughout Democratic and Republican member offices, on Hill committee staffs and in places like the Pentagon and State Department. On top of his 10-seminar course, students and graduates are invited to panel discussions and dinner lectures Sokolski occasionally organizes at the National Republican Club, where they meet and network with nuclear experts from think tanks and advocacy groups, foreign diplomats and journalists.” Source: Rachel Oswald, “Nonproliferation Expert Schools Hill Aides on the Danger of Nuclear Annihilation,” CQ, February 5, 2018, available from http://www.cq.com/doc/weeklyreport-5257611.