Matt Korda recently sat down with BASIC’s Emerging Voices Network (EVN) to discuss how he uses open-source information to analyse global nuclear forces in his research. Matt is the Associate Director for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, where he co-authors the Nuclear Notebook — an authoritative open-source estimate of global nuclear forces and trends.
Matt is also an Associate Senior Researcher with the Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and co-authors the nuclear weapons chapters for the annual SIPRI Yearbook.
In this masterclass, Matt introduced EVN members to the ways he uses open-source information to study nuclear weapons. As emerging open-source technologies continue to become cheaper, faster, and more accessible, it will be critical for researchers, journalists, academics, activists, policy advocates, and government officials to arm themselves with the ability to use and accurately interpret these sources if they are to develop a shared understanding of the threat landscape and to avoid misinterpretation and misrepresentation.
Matt’s research and open-source discoveries about nuclear weapons have made headlines across the world, and his work is often used by governments, policymakers, academics, journalists, and the broader public in order to challenge assumptions and improve knowledge and understanding about nuclear arsenals and trends.
His work has been widely published and quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, Associated Press, CNN, The Toronto Star, Forbes, CBC, Politico, The Nation, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Defense One, Inkstick, Outrider, 38 North, Arms Control Wonk, and others.
The session concluded with a fascinating Q&A session with EVN members.
Expert Masterclasses enable BASIC’s fantastic network of senior nuclear policy experts to share their knowledge with the EVN. Masterclasses are both skills and content-based and are delivered online to make access to expertise more equitable for the EVN’s diverse global membership.