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Daniel Salisbury

Dr Daniel Salisbury

Visiting Research Fellow

Biography

Dr Daniel Salisbury is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Science & Security Studies (CSSS) within the Department of War Studies. Until April 2023, he was a Senior Research Fellow at CSSS and undertook a three-year Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship at the Centre on arms embargoes. Dr Salisbury is also an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He also previously held positions at the Henry L Stimson Center, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, CSSS and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Dr Salisbury is the author of Secrecy, Public Relations and the British Nuclear Debate: How the UK Government Learned to Talk about the Bomb, 1970-1983 (Routledge Cold War History series, 2020). He is also the author or co-author of a wide range of journal articles, book chapters and reports, and the co-editor of books on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and UN Security Council resolution 1540.

Dr Salisbury has acted as a Subject Matter Expert at over 40 sanctions, export control and nuclear security control capacity building workshops in around 20 jurisdictions around the world. He holds a PhD in War Studies, an MA in Science and Security and a BA in War Studies from King’s College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS), sits on the editorial board of the Strategic Trade Review and became an Associate of King’s College London (AKC) in 2010.

Research

  • Illicit trade and proliferation networks
  • Arms embargoes
  • Sanctions and export controls
  • Cold War history
  • British nuclear history
  • Nuclear security
  • Nonproliferation
  • Nuclear and missile programmes

Dr Salisbury's research interests encompass a number of areas: nuclear and intelligence history, nuclear and conventional arms proliferation, countering illicit networks and preventing nuclear terrorism. His three-year Leverhulme Trust research project sought to situate his research on illicit trade and proliferation networks within a broader picture of technology and arms transfers, defence industrial base issues and great power politics during the Cold War.

Publications

Books

  • Secrecy, Public Relations and the British Nuclear Debate: How the UK Government Learned to Talk About the Bomb, 1970-1983 (UK: Routledge, 2020).
  • Preventing the Proliferation of WMDs: Measuring the Success of UN Security Council Resolution 1540 (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) [Co-edited with Ian Stewart and Andrea Viski]
  • Open Source Intelligence in the Twenty-First Century: New Approaches and Opportunities (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) [Co-edited with Matthew Moran and Christopher Hobbs]

Book chapters

  • ‘The Downsides of the Supply-Side? The Underappreciated Costs and the Unintended Consequences of Supply-Side Nonproliferation Measures’ in David Arceneaux, Stephen Herzog and Ariel Petrovics eds. Atomic Backfires: Why Nuclear Policies Fail (Forthcoming 2024)
  • ‘The United Nations Security Council and the 1540 Committee’ in The Oxford Handbook of Nuclear Security (2023) [Ben Kienzle and Daniel Salisbury]

Research articles

Policy papers

Media articles

Further details

See Dr Salisbury's research profile.

    Research

    F673BBBE-71AF-422F-999B-908BE90A05A0
    Economic Conflict & Competition Research Group

    The ECCRG aims to be an academic centre of excellence for developing sustained, inter-disciplinary research on the study of Economic Warfare.

    iStock-950763220-780x440
    Nuclear security implications of counterfeit, fraudulent and suspect items

    King’s academics are working on a project for the IAEA focused on the nuclear security implications of CFSIs in the nuclear supply chain.

    Project status: Ongoing

    News

    King's academics publish the definitive book on nuclear security with Oxford University Press

    With over 60 contributors spanning six continents, and coverage of historical, current and emerging issues, The Oxford Handbook of Nuclear Security brings the...

    Oxford Academic logo

    New publication: 'Murder on Waterloo Bridge: placing the assassination of Georgi Markov in past and present context, 1970 - 2018'

    Daniel Salisbury and Karl Dewey published a new peer reviewed article in Contemporary British History journal exploring the assassination of Bulgarian...

    Waterloo Bridge

    Preventing the proliferation WMDs: measuring the success of UNSCR1540

    This edited volume provides a fresh analysis for researcher and practitioners regarding United Nations Security Council resolution 1540, the status of its...

    1540 book

    Proliferation case study: Nicholas Kaiga's efforts to supply aluminium tubes to Iran

    This case study details the attempts of an unnamed individual – Individual A – to illicitly procure controlled aluminium tubing. Individual A owns companies...

    Iran flag

    Trade controls and non-proliferation: compliance costs, drivers and challenges

    Project Alpha researcher, Daniel Salisbury, recently published an article in the journal Business and Politics entitled ‘Trade controls and non-proliferation:...

    project alpha

    Secrecy, Public Relations and the British Nuclear Debate

    Dr Daniel Salisbury's forthcoming book explores the British government’s efforts to make the case for nuclear weapons and public debates about nuclear weapons...

    Anti-nuclear weapons protest march, Oxford, England, 1980.

    Events

    09JunScience Technology and Health

    Making Order from Disorder: Navigating the Politics of International Investigations and Accountability

    Giving a fresh perspective of the conduct and implications of International investigations

    Please note: this event has passed.

    Features

    Adaptation Under Pressure: Russian and Ukrainian Air Power and Domain Capabilities

    Watch Dr Reyhaneh Fallah- Noshiravani, Dr Julia Muravska and Dr Daniel Salisbury as they discuss how states address shortcoming in air power and air domain...

    ukraine air 1903 x 558

    Why arms embargoes on countries such as North Korea fail

    More insight is needed on how to prevent the proliferation of potentially destabilising military capabilities.

    North Korea feature

      Research

      F673BBBE-71AF-422F-999B-908BE90A05A0
      Economic Conflict & Competition Research Group

      The ECCRG aims to be an academic centre of excellence for developing sustained, inter-disciplinary research on the study of Economic Warfare.

      iStock-950763220-780x440
      Nuclear security implications of counterfeit, fraudulent and suspect items

      King’s academics are working on a project for the IAEA focused on the nuclear security implications of CFSIs in the nuclear supply chain.

      Project status: Ongoing

      News

      King's academics publish the definitive book on nuclear security with Oxford University Press

      With over 60 contributors spanning six continents, and coverage of historical, current and emerging issues, The Oxford Handbook of Nuclear Security brings the...

      Oxford Academic logo

      New publication: 'Murder on Waterloo Bridge: placing the assassination of Georgi Markov in past and present context, 1970 - 2018'

      Daniel Salisbury and Karl Dewey published a new peer reviewed article in Contemporary British History journal exploring the assassination of Bulgarian...

      Waterloo Bridge

      Preventing the proliferation WMDs: measuring the success of UNSCR1540

      This edited volume provides a fresh analysis for researcher and practitioners regarding United Nations Security Council resolution 1540, the status of its...

      1540 book

      Proliferation case study: Nicholas Kaiga's efforts to supply aluminium tubes to Iran

      This case study details the attempts of an unnamed individual – Individual A – to illicitly procure controlled aluminium tubing. Individual A owns companies...

      Iran flag

      Trade controls and non-proliferation: compliance costs, drivers and challenges

      Project Alpha researcher, Daniel Salisbury, recently published an article in the journal Business and Politics entitled ‘Trade controls and non-proliferation:...

      project alpha

      Secrecy, Public Relations and the British Nuclear Debate

      Dr Daniel Salisbury's forthcoming book explores the British government’s efforts to make the case for nuclear weapons and public debates about nuclear weapons...

      Anti-nuclear weapons protest march, Oxford, England, 1980.

      Events

      09JunScience Technology and Health

      Making Order from Disorder: Navigating the Politics of International Investigations and Accountability

      Giving a fresh perspective of the conduct and implications of International investigations

      Please note: this event has passed.

      Features

      Adaptation Under Pressure: Russian and Ukrainian Air Power and Domain Capabilities

      Watch Dr Reyhaneh Fallah- Noshiravani, Dr Julia Muravska and Dr Daniel Salisbury as they discuss how states address shortcoming in air power and air domain...

      ukraine air 1903 x 558

      Why arms embargoes on countries such as North Korea fail

      More insight is needed on how to prevent the proliferation of potentially destabilising military capabilities.

      North Korea feature