Ripped from the Headlines: How CNS Experts Use New Tools to Investigate Nuclear and Missile Programs Around the World

“Ripped from the Headlines: How CNS Experts Use New Tools to Investigate Nuclear and Missile Programs Around the World” by Jessica Varnum. When reports of a mysterious explosion in Russia emerged on August 8, experts at Middlebury’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) were the first to state publicly that the explosion resulted from Russia’s failed test of a nuclear cruise missile. CNS experts act as “nuclear detectives,” using commercial satellite imagery, 3D modeling, social media analysis, and other unclassified intelligence techniques to investigate nuclear and missile tests and covert facilities worldwide, often in response to news headlines. This work is important from a policy standpoint, because during the 2003 Iraq War debate, when these techniques did not exist or were only available to national governments, policymakers relied on classified intelligence to make the case regarding WMDs in Iraq. Organizations like CNS are now capable of informing similar debates that affect war and peace, thanks to the wider availability of unclassified “new tools and technologies.”