Cirincione, Joseph

PERSONAL:

Born in Bronx, NY; married Priscilla Labovitz (a lawyer), c. 1978; children: two. Education: Boston College, honors degree; University of Georgetown School of Foreign Service, M.Sc.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Center for American Progress, 1333 H St. N.W., 10th Fl., Washington, DC 20005. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Scholar, educator, writer, and editor. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC, director of nonproliferation, c. 1998-2006; Center for American Progress, Washington, DC, senior fellow and director of nuclear policy, 2006—; Georgetown University, Washington, DC, faculty member in the School of Foreign Service. Previously chief organizer for the Tenants First Coalition, Boston, MA; publisher and editor of ProliferationNews.org; U.S. House of Representatives professional staff member of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Government Operations, and staff director of the Military Reform Caucus; has held positions at the Henry L. Stimson Center, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, all Washington, DC. Appeared on numerous television news shows and in the 2005 documentary, Why We Fight; producer of the DVD The Proliferation Threat.

MEMBER:

Council on Foreign Relations.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, in cooperation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the International Institute for Strategic Studies) Central America and the Western Alliance, Holmes & Meier (New York, NY), 1985.

(Editor) Repairing the Regime: Preventing the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Routledge (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Jon B. Wolfsthal and Miriam Rajkumar) Deadly Arsenals: Tracking Weapons of Mass Destruction, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington, DC), 2002, 2nd edition published as Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats, 2005.

(With others) WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington, DC), 2004.

Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Joseph Cirincione is one of the best-known weapons experts in the United States, especially in the area of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. In a 2003 interview with Mitchell J. Tropin for the Tacoma Voice Web site, the author noted: "The phones have not stopped ringing. It's one crisis after another. Either it's North Korea, the Iranian nuclear program, the U.S. debate on building new nuclear weapons, or loose nukes in Russia." The author went on to tell Tropin that he tries to provide a fair, balanced, and understandable picture of weapons issues by "stripping them of their political skins so that people can know the facts and make up their own mind." Cirincione is also the author or editor of several books focusing on weapons of mass destruction and nuclear proliferation.

Cirincione is the author, with Jon B. Wolfsthal and Miriam Rajkumar, of Deadly Arsenals: Tracking Weapons of Mass Destruction, published in 2002, with a second edition published in 2005 as Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats. The authors provide a country-by-country look at the proliferation of weapons, including the troublesome issues associated with Korea and Iran. They also examine non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty States and describe successful efforts at nonproliferation agreements with various countries.

In his 2007 book, Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, the author covers the history of nuclear weapons beginning with discoveries concerning splitting the atom in the 1930s on through the development of the first atomic bomb and continuing to the modern-day growing threat of the proliferation of nuclear weapons throughout the world. Referred to as "part history, part theory, and part policy guide" by a contributor to Arms Control Today, the book explores the various policy issues of the United States concerning nuclear weapons proliferation and argues against many of its policies, especially the U.S. government's standard diplomatic practice of trying to prevent "enemy" governments from developing nuclear weapons instead of focusing on halting all nuclear weapons development. Cirincione also examines why the governments of various countries decide to develop nuclear weapons capabilities and explores the science, strategy, and politics that fuel the development of nuclear stockpiles and, in the author's opinion, increase the chance of a nuclear attack. An Internet Bookwatch contributor noted that the author provides a blend of "history, security analysis and theory." A contributor to the Science a GoGo Web site commented on Cirincione's proposals for stopping nuclear proliferation, noting that the author's "solution may be complex, nuanced, and … hopeful, but humanity's continued existence may hinge upon ideas like those presented in Bomb Scare.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Arms Control Today, March, 2007, review of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, p. 52.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, January 2003, E.C. Dolman, review of Deadly Arsenals: Tracking Weapons of Mass Destruction, p. 898; September, 2003, review of Deadly Arsenals, p. 70.

International Affairs, January, 2003, Fiona Simpson, review of Deadly Arsenals, p. 182.

Internet Bookwatch, June 2007, review of Bomb Scare.

Journal of Peace Research, November, 2003, Morten Bremer Marli, review of Repairing the Regime: Preventing the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction, p. 747.

Latin American Research Review, September, 1987, James D. Cochrane, review of Central America and the Western Alliance, p. 196.

New York Review of Books, March 15, 2007, Jason Epstein, "Hurry Up Please It's Time," review of Bomb Scare, p. 28.

New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, summer, 2001, Brent S. Phillips, review of Repairing the Regime, p. 1236.

Parameters, spring, 2003, review of Deadly Arsenals, p. 140.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2003, review of Deadly Arsenals, p. 240; May, 2006, review of Deadly Arsenals.

Survival, winter, 2002, Lewis A. Dunn, review of Deadly Arsenals, p. 175.

ONLINE

Carnegie Endowment,http://www.carnegieendowment.org/ (November 21, 2007), "Joseph Cirincione Senior Associate and Director for Non-Proliferation."

Columbia University Press,http://www.columbia.edu/ (November 22, 2007), brief profile of author.

Center for American Progress,http://www.americanprogress.org/ (November 22, 2007), "Joseph Cirincione, Senior Fellow and Director for Nuclear Policy."

Globalist,http://www.theglobalist.com/ (November 21, 2007), "Joseph Cirincione Senior Vice President for National Security, Center for American Progress."

Science a GoGo,http://www.scienceagogo.com/ (November 22, 2007), review of Bomb Scare.

Takoma Voice,http://www.takoma.com/ (November 21, 2007), Mitchell J. Tropin, "Joseph Cirincione: A Ray of Light Amid the Weapons Hype," interview with author.