Dr Daniel Salisbury

Biography

Dr Daniel Salisbury is a  Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) within the Department of War Studies. He is currently undertaking a three-year research project on arms embargos as part of a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. Daniel is also a Non-Resident Associate at the Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He previously held positions at the Stimson Center, the Belfer Center, the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, CSSS and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Daniel 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 over 20 journal articles and book chapters, and the co-editor of two books on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and UN Security Council resolution 1540.

Daniel has acted as a Subject Matter Expert at over 30 nuclear security and export control capacity building workshops in over 10 countries around the world since 2012. He holds a PhD in War Studies, MA in Science and Security and BA in War Studies from King's College London. He 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

Daniel’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 new three-year Leverhulme Trust research project seeks 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 history of 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]

Research articles

• ‘Countering a Technological Berlin Tunnel: North Korean Operatives, Helicopters and Intelligence in the Cold War Illicit Arms Trade, 1981-1986’, Intelligence and National Security (2022).
• ‘Of Moles and Missiles: Anatomy of a North Korean Arms Deal?’, Nonproliferation Review (2022).
• ‘Spies, Diplomats and Deceit: Exploring the Persistent Role of Diplomatic Missions in North Korea’s WMD Proliferation and Arms Trafficking Networks.’ Asian Security (2021).
• ‘Security under Strain? Protecting Nuclear Materials during the COVID-19 Pandemic’ (with Chris Hobbs and Nick Roth). RUSI Journal (2021)
• ‘Arming Iran from the Heart of Westminster? The Iranian Military Procurement Offices, Rumours and Intelligence, 1981-1987.’ Intelligence and National Security (2020).
• ‘Exploring the Use of “Third Countries” in Proliferation Networks: the case of Malaysia,’ European Journal of International Security 4, no.1 (2019): 101-122.

Policy papers

• ‘Nuclear Security Culture in Practice: A Handbook of UK Case Studies’ (with Karl Dewey, George Foster and Christopher Hobbs). Centre for Science and Security Studies, King’s College London (March 2021)
• ‘The Long Arm: How U.S. Law Enforcement Expanded its Extraterritorial Reach to Counter WMD Proliferation Networks’ (with Aaron Arnold). Belfer Center/Managing the Atom Paper (February 2019).

Media articles

• 'Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Iranian arms dealing continued in the UK even after notorious tank deal fell apart in 1979’, The Conversation (22 March 2022)
• ‘Will North Korea Sell Its Nuclear Technology?,’ Scientific American (25 September 2017).
• ‘Sanctions Against North Korea Consistently Fail. Why?,’ Newsweek (15 July 2017).
• ‘A Malaysian Shipyard with North Korean Connections?,’ Arms Control Wonk blog (18 May 2017).

Further details

See Daniel's research profile