The Centre for Nuclear Strategy and Security (CNSS) offers research and education focusing on nuclear weapons and international security. The centre builds on the unique legacy of strategic nuclear thought in the Department of War Studies and includes faculty members working across the School. CNSS faculty offer training and education to deliver a pipeline of experts and practitioners, generating policy-relevant insights using advanced methods working across a range of academic disciplines, and develop research infrastructure for interdisciplinary research on nuclear weapons and international security.
At a time of unprecedented concerns about escalation, eroding alliances, and nuclear proliferation, CNSS offers a broad range of technical, strategic, historical and area- specific insights across the Euro-Atlantic region, the Middle East, and Asia. CNSS faculty and associated graduate students conduct research on nuclear proliferation, competition among nuclear powers, the security and safety of nuclear arsenals, and the changing role of nuclear weapons in regional and global conflict.
Our Partners
Dr Kristin Ven Bruusgaard
Dr Bruusgaard is Director of the Norwegian Intelligence School and Senior Visiting Researcher with the Center for Nuckear Strategy and Security. Previously, she was Deputy Leader of the 2021-2023 Norwegian Government Defense Commission, Postdoctoral Fellow (Assistant Professor) of Political Science at the University of Oslo, a Nuclear Security Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University, a Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS), and a senior security policy analyst in the Norwegian Armed Forces.
Her research focuses on Russian nuclear strategy, nuclear and non-nuclear deterrence, crisis and deterrence dynamics in NATO Europe and the Arctic/High North. She holds a Ph.D. in Defence Studies from King’s College London, an MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University and is an Ancienne from the NATO Defence College. Her analysis has featured in global media, and she has published in Foreign Affairs, International Security, Security Dialogue, Journal of Strategic Studies, Survival, War on the Rocks, Texas National Security Review, and with Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and the MIT Press.
Dr Heather Williams
Dr Williams is the director of the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) and a senior fellow in the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She is an affiliate with the MIT Center for Nuclear Security Policy, a visiting senior research fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, and a senior associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London. Dr Williams is a member of the UN Secretary General Advisory Board on Disarmament Affairs, and she has been a member of the Defense Science Board and State Department International Security Advisory Board. Before joining CSIS Dr Williams was a visiting fellow with the Project on Managing the Atom at Havard Kennedy School, and a Stanton Nuclear Security fellow in the Security Studies Program at MIT. Until 2022, she was a senior lecturer (associate professor) at King’s College London and served as a specialist adviser to the House of Lords International Relations Committee. Dr Williams has a PhD in war studies from King’s College London, an MA in security policy studies from the George Washington University, and a BA in international relations and Russian studies from Boston University.
Dr Sörenson
Dr Karl SÖRENSON (Ph.D.) is director of research and deputy director of the department for Strategy and Policy at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI, where he heads the Nuclear weapons analysis program. Sörenson is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College Centre for Nuclear Strategy and Security (CNSS) and Researcher at the Swedish Defence University (FHS) department for naval operations. Sörenson’s Ph.D. from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), treated game-theoretic analysis of deterrence with bounded rationality and applications to military operations.
Group lead
Professor of War Studies