A Note from CRDF Global 

South Asia, along with every region in the world, is faced with challenges related to safeguarding and securing nuclear material. In this series, eight grantees identified and presented suggestions to address pressing nuclear security issues in South Asia. These articles respond to the larger question which underpinned the scope of this project: How can we mitigate current and future nuclear security vulnerabilities in the subcontinent?

The essays propose a variety of solutions including the pursuit of advanced reactors, including Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), addressing cybersecurity challenges, ensuring the safety of nuclear personnel, and developing bilateral security frameworks to enhance regional security. All of the essays are published on South Asian Voices, an online platform that encourages expertise in the nonproliferation field in the region.

CRDF Global is an independent nonprofit organization and leading provider of logistical support, program design and management, and strategic capacity building programs in the areas of threat reduction, CBRNE security and nonproliferation, border security, cybersecurity, global health, technology entrepreneurship, and international professional exchanges.

A Note from South Asian Voices

 We are delighted to share this collection of essays, originally featured on South Asian Voices (SAV), with a wider audience.

Since 2013, SAV has provided an online platform for strategic analysis on South Asia’s security, political, and economic affairs and featured debate and analysis among scholars, analysts, and policymakers on critical issues in the region.

Thus, it was only fitting for SAV to partner with CRDF Global to offer grants to support research exploring emerging challenges in and possibilities for cooperation on some of the most pressing nuclear security issues on the subcontinent. These essays reflect ongoing analytical work by scholars from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, on topics ranging from the impact of nuclear security culture or cyber threats on protection of nuclear materials to regional mechanisms for cooperation and prospects for emerging technologies such as small modular reactors. The essays in this collection, written by Chirayu Thakkar, Sitara Noor, Pulkit Mohan, Palwasha Khan, Md. Shafiqul Islam, Sitakanta Mishra, Tahir Mahmood Azad, and Urvashi Rathore, further understanding of and dialogue on nuclear security risks in the region. They also identify opportunities for collaboration and offer innovative solutions that push the envelope to tackle what are often politically fractious problems.

We are grateful to CRDF Global for their partnership and to all our grantees for their thoughtful and deeply researched pieces. For more analysis on nuclear security issues and other topics related to the subcontinent’s strategic affairs, we invite you to visit the South Asian Voices website at southasianvoices.org.