Matthew Bunn

@matthew-bunn.bsky.social

500 followers 130 following 310 posts

Father, husband, citizen, professor, focusing mainly on nuclear weapons and nuclear energy issues. Faculty lead for Harvard's Managing the Atom project: www.belfercenter.org/programs/managing-atom
My website: matthewbunn.scholars.harvard.edu .. more

Videos

Matthew Bunn is an American nuclear and energy policy analyst, currently a professor of practice at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. He is the Co-principal Investigator for the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom. .. more

Political science 44%

Engineering 24%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Pinned

Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · Oct 23

Proud to have been part of 50 years of work to reduce the danger of nuclear war at the Harvard Kennedy School, detailed in this new account in the Kennedy School's magazine. The effort is more urgent and essential than ever. www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-rese...

Inside the Kennedy School’s long fight to prevent nuclear catastrophe

For generations, the insights and engagement of Harvard Kennedy School scholars have strengthened nuclear strategies and reduced dangers.

www.hks.harvard.edu

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Kingston Reif @kingstonareif.bsky.social · 1d

"We Might Regret Golden Dome’s Greatest Ambition"

We Might Regret Golden Dome's Greatest Ambition

What happens when the United States tries to build a missile shield so ambitious that Russia and China start dreaming up weapons that no defense can stop?

warontherocks.com

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Scott Nolan Smith @scottnolansmith.com · 1d

Funders play a key role in shaping how life science research is conducted. As science advances, so do biosafety and biosecurity challenges. @nti.org has published new guidance and a framework to help funders assess risks and evaluate research proposals. www.nti.org/analysis/art...

Guidance for Assessing Biosecurity and Biosafety Risks: For the Purpose of Reviewing Research Proposals Prior to Funding

Funders play a key role in shaping how life science research is conducted. This new framework—developed collaboratively by a diverse group of internationally recognized experts—helps funders identify ...

www.nti.org

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Ploughshares @ploughshares.bsky.social · 2d

🎉 Today is the 80th anniversary of the first issue of the @bulletinatomic.bsky.social. In this piece, @atomicbell.bsky.social reflects on how we arrived at 89 seconds to midnight & what's next.

We appreciate the Bulletin's persistent & ever-timely thought leadership.
thebulletin.org/premium/2025...

Eighty years and 89 seconds: It’s time to fight against midnight

In the 80th year of the nuclear age, with just 89 seconds left on the Doomsday Clock, every nuclear challenge is trending in the wrong direction.

thebulletin.org

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Gregory Koblentz @gregkoblentz.bsky.social · 2d

What chemical weapons may still be in Syria? How much progress has the OPCW made in identifying and securing undeclared remnants of Assad's chemical arsenal? What more can the international community do to expedite the verification and destruction process?

thebulletin.org/2025/12/curi...

Curing a chemical hangover

Many tons of chemical warfare agents and precursors are still unaccounted for in Syria. The longer suspected weapons sites remain unexamined and insecure, the higher the risk that whatever chemical we...

thebulletin.org

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4d

watching this 1995 documentary about nuclear weapons tests and while nuclear weapons are, in general, an insane weapon, nuclear artillery seems even more insane? what do you mean you want tactical nukes to use on the battlefield?

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 4d

Today in 1964 at Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana, as aircraft taxied in icy weather during an Operational Readiness Alert inspection exercise, a B-58 carrying a 9-Megaton B53 bomb in a pod and four 70-kiloton to 1-Megaton B43 bombs skidded off the taxiway, suffered landing gear failure, and caught fire.

A color photograph of a shiny B-58 Hustler bomber outside on a concrete pad on a sunny day. The very large combination fuel/bomb pod is attached to the bottom of the aircraft.

A color photograph of a B-58 Hustler bomber in flight, the sun glinting off its right side, in which the bottom of the aircraft tilted toward the camera showing the attached fuel/bomb pod and B43 thermonuclear bombs.

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Council on Strategic Risks @councilonstrategicrisks.org · 4d

🚀 CSR is extremely excited to announce that, effective January 1, Mallory Stewart will succeed Christine Parthemore as CEO. Christine has led CSR since 2019, and will continue to serve as Director of CSR's Nolan Center.

Read Christine's note, along with quotes from our Board and founders, below:

An Exciting Update from CSR - The Council on Strategic Risks

It has been a true honor to lead CSR in the CEO seat for six amazing years, for which I’m grateful to our staff, our Board, and our vast network of partners and supporters.

councilonstrategicrisks.org

Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 4d

For decades, preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, to reduce the dangers of nuclear war, has been a central element of American grand strategy. It's not mentioned in the Trump national security strategy, except for crowing over the strikes on Iran this summer. For a more sensible take:

Bipartisan Task Force Calls for Revitalized U.S. Strategy to Prevent Nuclear Proliferation

New report from the Task Force on Nuclear Proliferation and U.S. National Security underscores urgent need for new mechanisms to protect U.S. interests.

www.belfercenter.org

Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 4d

Excellent description of the way Harvard ACTUALLY is these days -- from a conservative Indiana governor. Also, a good discussion of the need to get out of our bubbles and talk to each other, and work together for the public good.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | I was a red state governor. What I saw at Harvard surprised me.

The spirit of association remains alive in unexpected places.

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Max Boot @maxboot.bsky.social · 4d

The 2022 Biden strategy had a condemnation of “Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war on its neighbor Ukraine,” while the Trump strategy has no words of censure at all. None. While silent about Russian transgressions, it has plenty of nasty things to say about America’s European allies. wapo.st/4prmqK9

Opinion | Trump’s national security strategy slams Europe, not Russia

The White House lays out an approach making clear America no longer leads the free world.

wapo.st

Reposted by Matthew Bunn, Anthony Ricciardi, Dominique Berteaux

Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 5d

Today in 1972, as Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, and Ron Evans were rocketing toward the Moon, one of them looked back and took this iconic photograph, the first to capture a fully-illuminated round Earth and the only one taken by a human being.

A color photograph of a brightly-lit, mostly cloud-covered Earth, showing Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula at top center, and Antarctica and the South Pole at the bottom.

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Geoff Brumfiel @gbrumfiel.bsky.social · 8d

NEW: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to sunset of the Aircraft impact assessment rule. The rule is designed to prevent a 9/11 style attack on a nuclear reactor.

(H/T @whatisnuclear.com )

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 10d

Why on earth is the Bulwark wasting everyone’s time with Nuzzi?

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Brian Taylor @bdtaylor-su.bsky.social · 10d

This is an actual thing Putin said today:

"We are taking a surgical approach with Ukraine, very carefully."

4 images of Russia's "surgical approach":

kremlin.ru/events/presi...

Reposted by Kori Schake, Matthew Bunn

Shannon E French @sefrench.bsky.social · 10d

Let me be clear. In the context of war, killing helpless former combatants who’re trying not to drown by clinging to pieces of their wrecked ship is a WAR CRIME. Outside the context of war, it is MURDER. There are a lot of very complex hard-to-judge military ethics cases, but this ain’t one of them.

why do we have rules if no one reads them !

Alt: GIF shows a scene from the TV show The Big Bang where the character Sheldon tosses a large stack of papers in the air and says, angrily, as the pages fall everywhere, “Why do we have rules if no one reads them?!”

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Gregory Koblentz @gregkoblentz.bsky.social · 12d

Exclusive: The first proof of the use of chemical weapons in Sudan’s civil war
Source: France 24

www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/...

The Observers - Exclusive: The first proof of the use of chemical weapons in Sudan’s civil war

An investigation by the FRANCE 24 Observers team reveals how chlorine gas was used as a weapon in the ongoing civil war in Sudan. All evidence suggests the Sudanese army used chlorine to recapture a…

www.france24.com

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 12d

Senator Kelly is correct.

Plus a Public Service Announcement:

KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.

The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 13d

Former US military lawyers speak out:

"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."

Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes

1/2

• If the U.S. military operation to interdict and destroy suspected narcotraFicking vessels is a “non-international armed conflict,” as the Trump Administration suggests, orders to “kill everybody,” which can reasonably be regarded as an order to give “no quarter,” and
to “double-tap” a target in order to kill survivors, are clearly illegal under international law. In short, they are war crimes.
• If the U.S. military operation is not an armed conflict of any kind, these orders to kill helpless civilians clinging to the wreckage of a vessel our military destroyed would subject everyone from SECDEF down to the individual who pulled the trigger to prosecution under U.S. law for murder.

Highlighted sentence at the end of the document reads:

Again, the bottom line is that, since orders to kill survivors of an attack at sea are “patently illegal,” anyone who issues or follows such orders can and should be prosecuted for war crimes, murder, or both.

Reposted by Matthew Bunn, Daniel W. Drezner

Jake Tapper, long-suffering Philly sports fan @jaketapper.bsky.social · 13d

Senate Armed Services Committee responds to news stories about the alleged double tap strike:

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Marc Lynch, Matthew Bunn , and 25 more Anna O. Law, Marc Lynch, Matthew Bunn, Brendan Nyhan, Gavin A. Schmidt, Tom Clark, Scott L. Greer, Mark D. White, Rosemary A. Joyce, David Rothschild, American Library Association, Dawn J. Wright, Janet Murray, Michael W. Kraus, David R. Miller, Adrian Daub, James Goodwin, Brian Murphy, Brian Keegan, Pádua Fernandes, Annette Yoshiko Reed, Stella M. Rouse, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Dan Immergluck, David R. Shumway, Élisabeth Vallet, Sofya Aptekar, Kristina McElheran

Matthew Eadie @mattheweadie.bsky.social · 14d

BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university

Full statement from NU below:

Reposted by Rebecca Solnit, Matthew Bunn, Brendan Nyhan , and 7 more Rebecca Solnit, Matthew Bunn, Brendan Nyhan, Daniel Webster, Daniel W. Drezner, Christina Pagel, Rebecca Zorach, Manisha Sinha, Aviel Roshwald, Élisabeth Vallet

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 14d

To put a finer point on this whole thing: "Two people with direct knowledge of the operation" — presumably uniformed military leaders — are accusing the U.S. Secretary of Defense of personally ordering specific war crimes. That's a historic accusation.

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 14d

Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing

"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."

Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social

Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Matthew Bunn, Fabián Muniesa

WIRED @wired.com · 14d

You can get ChatGPT to help you build a nuclear bomb if you simply design the prompt in the form of a poem, according to a new study from researchers in Europe. www.wired.com/story/poems-...

Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon

It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme.

www.wired.com

Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 17d

So, while a return to nuclear testing would be a huge setback for global nuclear control efforts, it would not enable China to develop dramatically new nuclear capabilities.
mitpress.mit.edu/978026205182...

The Untold Story of China's Nuclear Weapon Development and Testing

The Untold Story of China’s Nuclear Weapon Development and Testing offers the most comprehensive account of China’s nuclear weapons development f...

mitpress.mit.edu

Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 17d

ICYMI, this WaPo story on activity at China's Lop Nur test site makes clear they are prepared to resume nuclear testing if the United States goes ahead. But as Zhang's new book makes clear, China has already developed nuclear weapons comparable (including in yield-to-weight) to U.S. designs.

China rapidly expands nuclear test site as Trump revives Cold War tension

The quiet expansion of Beijing’s remote nuclear weapons complex, Lop Nur, points to years of preparation for a potential return to a Cold War-era arms race.

www.washingtonpost.com

Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 17d

Excited to say that my colleague Hui Zhang's magnum opus, providing a detailed technical history of China's nuclear weapons development and testing -- every test, what they learned from it, etc. -- is out now from MIT Press. mitpress.mit.edu/978026205182...

The Untold Story of China's Nuclear Weapon Development and Testing

The Untold Story of China’s Nuclear Weapon Development and Testing offers the most comprehensive account of China’s nuclear weapons development f...

mitpress.mit.edu

Matthew Bunn @matthew-bunn.bsky.social · 17d

Great news! Looking forward!

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

James Acton @nuclear-jim.bsky.social · 17d

I'm thrilled to have a contract with @academic.oup.com for my book on "Entanglement and Unintended Escalation." (There'll be a better title!)

The manuscript is drafted and currently being revised. Hopefully should be out second half of next year!

Reposted by Kori Schake, Matthew Bunn

Cliff W. Gilmore @cliffwgilmore.bsky.social · 18d

Ok. I’ll go: As I was trained and trained others, US military service members are legally, morally, & ethically obligated to refuse to follow unlawful orders.

Doing so is high risk, as it is a de facto case of guilty until proven innocent — but it is a duty to refuse to follow them all the same.

Reposted by Matthew Bunn

Max Boot @maxboot.bsky.social · 20d

This isn’t a “peace plan.” It’s a blueprint for Ukraine’s capitulation. If implemented, it would turn this pro-Western, democratic nation, which has been courageously resisting Russian aggression since 2014, into a Kremlin colony. wapo.st/3XcRot6