Postdoctoral Scholars Award: Remote Sensing, Open-source Analysis, and Citizen Nuclear Intelligence

Lawrence Christopher C, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

General Audience Summary In this project, a postdoctoral research fellow will engage in a study of the making of citizen nuclear intelligence and its role in framing public debates about nuclear technology and weapons of mass destruction. The results of this project will serve to enhance understanding of nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction by showing how distinctive knowledge communities frame nuclear-proliferation risks in distinctive ways, and how those are changing in the post-9/11 era. The results of this project will be communicated in academic journal, and in arms-control periodicals. They will contribute to ongoing discussions in STS and policy studies, and in nuclear security studies. They will also provide a clearer understanding of how nuclear intelligence products are made and used, which could thereby enable arms-control analysts to better engage with policy makers and enable policy makers to better interpret and deploy nuclear intelligence in national efforts to avoid costly foreign confrontations and slow the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In addition, this work will help appraise the role that information technologies can play in informing publics about complex technological and societal problems. Technical Summary This project centers around three sets of research question. The PI will determine what are the tools, practices and themes present in open-source nuclear intelligence analyses, and how these compare and interact with the traditional analysis practices of intelligence and nuclear-safeguards institutions. He will also address how the knowledge products of open-source communities affect the framing of public debates within the US about nuclear technologies and weapons of mass destruction, and the extent to which these shape national procurements and foreign policy. Finally, he will explore how the knowledge frameworks of open-source communities, and the national actions they inspire, interact on a global stage with international institutions, coalitions, and nuclear events. To engage with these questions, he will adopt a mixed methods approach. In particular, he will us qualitative media analysis of various documents including open-source intelligence products, news media related to nuclear proliferation, and government documents that reveal how decision makers are informed about nuclear activities. He will also conduct formal interviews with open-source analysts, tasking committees of satellite-imagery vendors, government decision makers, journalists, and nuclear-safeguards experts in the Department of Energy and at the International Atomic Energy Agency. In doing so, he will draw on current STS theories pioneered by his mentor, and complement ongoing STS projects related to nuclear energy and risk.