Strong monitoring and verification are at the heart of an effective arms control treaty. The better we can monitor, the better we can verify that treaty obligations are met and nobody is cheating. Arms control monitoring is stuck in the past, however, with tools and methods unchanged from the first nuclear negotiations in the 1970s. Meanwhile, other international regimes have gone ahead, with environmental and resource management treaties making big strides in the use of ubiquitous sensing and other new technologies. This course will explore how to bring these innovations to the arms control arena and create treaties for the 21st century. Students will have an opportunity in their course projects to create new ideas for monitoring and verification in a format useful to policymakers. While the course is designed for MIP students, it is open to undergraduates with the instructor's permission: please contact gottemoeller@stanford.edu.
3 units · Letter (ABCD/NP)
Strong monitoring and verification are at the heart of an effective arms control treaty. The better we can monitor, the better we can verify that treaty obligations are met and nobody is cheating. Arms control monitoring is stuck in the past, however, with tools and methods unchanged from the first nuclear negotiations in the 1970s. Meanwhile, other international regimes have gone ahead, with environmental and resource management treaties making big strides in the use of ubiquitous sensing and other new technologies. This course will explore how to bring these innovations to the arms control arena and create treaties for the 21st century. Students will have an opportunity in their course projects to create new ideas for monitoring and verification in a format useful to policymakers. While the course is designed for MIP students, it is open to undergraduates with the instructor's permission: please contact gottemoeller@stanford.edu.
Offered in Spring 2026 at Stanford University.