A Train-the-Trainer Approach to Nonproliferation Studies

Despite the growing challenges and threats in the WMD area, surprisingly few courses on nonproliferation are offered at the college level in the United States and globally. As a consequence, graduates in key, related subject areas—such as biology, chemistry, history, physics, public health, and political science—often complete college without receiving any instruction in WMD and means for their control. Without a new generation of students trained in these subjects, the United States and other nations will have difficulty recruiting informed decisionmakers able to craft new and effective policies to combat emerging WMD proliferation and terrorism threats. This presentation addresses the train-the-trainer approach as a means to close the education gap and increase the availability of nonproliferation studies at the undergraduate and graduate level domestically and internationally. The paper draws on lessons learned by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies over the past 16 years in teaching nonproliferation studies at the graduate level and in conducting train-the-trainer programs for professors in the United States, Russia, China, and other countries.