Global Security,
Geopolitics,
Proliferation,
Global Governance
Emerging Technology
Jon B. Wolfsthal is the Director of Global Risk at FAS. Jon B. Wolfsthal is also a senior adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security and member of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He was appointed to the US Department of State’s International Security Advisory Board in 2022. He served previously as senior advisor to Global Zero in Washington, DC.
Before 2017, Mr. Wolfsthal served as Special Assistant to President of the United States Barack Obama for National Security Affairs and is a former senior director at the National Security Council for arms control and nonproliferation. He also served from 2009-2012 as Special Advisor to Vice President Joseph R. Biden for nuclear security and nonproliferation and as a director for nonproliferation on the National Security Council.
During his government service, Mr. Wolfsthal has been involved in almost every aspect of U.S. nuclear weapons, deterrence, arms control, nonproliferation policy. He helped negotiate and secure the ratification of the New START arms reduction agreement with the Russian Federation, helped develop nuclear policy including through the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review. He has worked on efforts to secure vulnerable nuclear materials, helped guide U.S. nuclear weapons targeting and deterrent policies, and supported efforts to prevent the acquisition and use of nuclear weapons by North Korea and Iran. He also served as a career civil servant at the U.S. Department of Energy from 1995-1999 in a variety of capacities, including the on-site nuclear monitor at Yongbyon, North Korea during 1995-96.
Detonating a nuclear weapon in space would not only damage U.S. assets but those of all countries, including Russia. It would set back the use of space for multiple purposes – peaceful and otherwise – by decades.
The Federation of American Scientists seeks answers about the Department of Defense’s annual report on “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China.”