BASIC Executive Director Awarded Prestigious Fellowship at Harvard’s Managing the Atom Program
BASIC is delighted to share that Sebastian Brixey-Williams, Executive Director, has been awarded a Fellowship at Harvard’s Managing the Atom (MTA) Program at the Belfer Center, in the Kennedy School of Government.
The Fellowship runs from September 2024 – June 2025 at the latest, with Sebastian relocating to Cambridge (Massachusetts) to undertake research on the intersection between international law and nuclear weapons. Sebastian will be returning to BASIC full-time after the Fellowship.
Dr Gry Thomasen Becomes BASIC’s Research Director
We are likewise incredibly pleased to announce that BASIC Senior Policy Fellow and Programme Director, Dr Gry Thomasen, has been promoted to Research Director.
In this capacity Gry will be taking lead operational responsibility for BASIC’s policy and research agenda, project fundraising, and project staffing.
Below, we interview Gry and Sebastian to provide more insight into what their new positions will involve and what it will mean for the future of BASIC’s work:
Q: What is Harvard’s Managing the Atom Program, and what will you be doing?
Sebastian: Harvard’s Managing the Atom (MTA) Program focuses on how to live with nuclear technologies in as safe and responsible a way as possible. The Program covers military and civil nuclear, and I am increasingly covering both in my policy work, although my central academic focus will be on nuclear weapons. Each year, MTA takes in around 10 Fellows as postdocs or mid-career professionals—and this year, both I and my colleague at BASIC, Non-Resident Fellow Dr Rabia Akhtar, have been selected. We’ll have weekly seminars with the other Fellows, where we learn about new areas of nuclear policy and support one another in our research development.
My recent research has looked at the lawfulness of nuclear targeting, and I’ll shortly be bringing out a piece called Firing Blind that examines this in the UK context. My research at Harvard will build on this further, working with international legal experts to try to forecast how international humanitarian and environmental law could evolve over the next two to three decades, and what impact this might have on the lawfulness of nuclear weapons targeting. In other words, is it getting harder to use nuclear weapons legally, and if so, what will the strategic, legal, and political consequences be for nuclear-armed states?
Q: Why has BASIC created the new Research Director role?
Gry: BASIC is a growing and flourishing organisation with many partners and support from worldwide governments, academia, civil society and large and interesting foundations. We have had a lot of interest in our work in areas such as nuclear responsibilities, risk reduction and the Emerging Voices Network. Over the last three years, this work has reached a larger audience, including the interested public, and we have created the role of Research Director to provide oversight and support to BASIC’s staff and projects to ensure we continue on this successful trajectory. I am very excited to be chosen to make this happen, and I look forward to the new challenges ahead.
Q: What will be your priorities as Research Director in your first year?
Gry: My main priority as Research Director is to ensure that BASIC continues to flourish by helping and supporting BASIC’s team in developing exciting and essential projects for governments and societies dealing with the many critical challenges we face in international security. Today, there are many critical issues where BASIC’s expertise is incredibly relevant, and I am glad to see that it is much sought after by governments, academia, and civil society.
It is also important to me that we continually strive to better ourselves and develop our thinking and expertise, which is, in my opinion, already very impressive. It expands across the most pertinent issues in international security, from risk reduction in all its forms to climate security, trust building, nuclear responsibilities and norms. It also crosses many regions, including the Asia-Pacific, Euro-Atlantic, and the Arctic, to name but a few. I believe we should continue to protect BASIC’s reputation as an independent think tank that delivers solid research-based policy advice, convenes critical dialogues and supports emerging voices.
To do all of this, I will ensure that BASIC’s staff are fully supported and given the tools and support they need to complete their work, producing some of the finest research in the policy world. I see this as one of the most fundamental tasks ahead of me.
Q: What will this mean for the future of the Risk Reduction Programme?
Gry: To maintain continuity, I will stay on as the Programme Director of the Risk Reduction Programme for the foreseeable future, and we will hire a replacement for me to handle our flagship project, Rethinking European Security. The future of European security architecture is incredibly important and close to my heart, and I feel very privileged to have already engaged with governments and experts across Europe on this subject. I will continue to engage and support the implementation of risk reduction measures globally.
Q: How will the fellowship influence the future direction of your work at BASIC?
Sebastian: There are so many ways that my time at Harvard will benefit BASIC. First, I’ll be bringing my new research agenda and expertise on the intersection of nuclear weapons and international law back into BASIC and its research/policy programmes. I’m confident that this is a crucial area that will get more attention in the coming years, and we intend to be at the forefront of organisations working on this topic.
Second, I intend to write up much of the policy work that I have done over the past few years for academia. I’ve got heaps of material and data—relating to the nuclear responsibilities agenda, for instance—that I haven’t been able to do anything with simply due to a shortage of time. I’m excited to get some of that work out and on record.
Third, I’m planning to audit several courses while I’m in Cambridge at Harvard, and possibly MIT and Tufts, relating to law, business/non-profit management, and leadership, all of which will feed into my leadership approach and the coaching I do with the team. And finally, I’m expecting to expand my networks dramatically in the States: in academia, policy, and funding circles. I can’t quite predict what the outcomes of this might be right now, but it’s Harvard: it’ll be good.