Graduation Year
2017
Date of Submission
4-2017
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Award
Best Senior Thesis in International Relations
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
International Relations
Second Department
Biophysics
Reader 1
Jennifer Taw
Reader 2
Scot Gould
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2017 Henrietta N Toivanen
Abstract
How might new technical verification capabilities enhance the prospects of success in future nuclear arms control negotiations? Both theory and evidence suggest that verification technologies can influence the dynamics of arms control negotiations by shaping and constraining the arguments and strategies that are available to the involved stakeholders. In the future, new technologies may help transcend the specific verification challenge of high-security warhead authentication, which is a verification capability needed in future disarmament scenarios that address fewer warheads, limit new categories of warheads, and involve nuclear weapons states other than the United States and Russia. Under these circumstances, the core challenge is maintaining the confidentiality of the classified information related to the warheads under inspection, while providing transparency in the verification process. This analysis focuses on a set of emerging warhead authentication approaches that rely on the cryptographic concept of zero-knowledge proofs and intend to solve the paradox between secrecy and transparency, making deeper reductions in warhead arsenals possible and thus facilitating future nuclear arms control negotiations.
Recommended Citation
Toivanen, Henrietta, "The Frontiers of Technology in Warhead Verification" (2017). CMC Senior Theses. 3396.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3396
