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Tom
Plant

Director, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

Tom Plant joined RUSI in June 2017 as the Director of its Proliferation and Nuclear Policy programme. His research interests include nuclear deterrence, arms control, proliferation issues – particularly in relation to North Korea – and UK nuclear policy. He is also Director of the UK Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI), a cross-generational network of over 900 members which encourages young scholars and professionals to engage with established experts on contemporary nuclear issues

Before joining RUSI he was a Principal Specialist at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), where he was responsible for technical oversight of arms control verification research programmes, including collaborations and exchanges with counterparts in China, Norway, Sweden and the US. Prior to that he held various posts at the Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Commonwealth Office, mostly focussed on non- and counter-proliferation issues in East Asia and the Middle East. During this time he spent a year seconded to King’s College London as a Research Fellow, working on a UK-funded project in support of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and remains a Visiting Senior Research Fellow with The Policy Institute at King’s. He holds a Masters in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a Postgraduate Certificate in Systems Engineering from Cranfield University.

Tom
Plant
Director, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

Contact Details

RUSI Whitehall

Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

By This Author

Another Bite at a 'Hamburger Summit'?

9 March 2018

Stunning news overnight, as US President Donald Trump agreed to an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by the end of...

Tags: United States, North Korea

"Plant added that while 'Russia already has a ton of systems that can threaten and overwhelm U.S. missile defenses,' Putin’s announcement reflects his country’s concern that the U.S. missile shield could grow powerful enough to become a game-changer. 'The Russians have a genuine worry from their perspective about where U.S. missile defense might go,” Plant said. “So it totally makes sense for them to try and find ways to defeat not what it is now, but what it may become.'"

Putin shows new Russian nuclear weapons: ‘It isn’t a bluff’

1 March 2018

Tags: Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, Russia, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

"So on the one hand there is this sense of, can Russia be trusted in a diplomatic arms control relationship context or they always cheat, do we have to have something in the locker?"

Tom Plant on nuclear arms control

3 February 2018

Tags: Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, United States, Russia, Global Security Issues

"As Tom Plant, a nuclear expert at RUSI, a think-tank, puts it: “For both Russia and the US, nukes have retained their primacy. You only have to look at how they are spending their money.”"

Why nuclear stability is under threat

25 January 2018

Tags: Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, United States, Russia, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

"If there is going to be a war in Korea, it is going to be because of action that U.S. forces are taking. It's not going to be because of what the North Koreans chose to do."

Are The Winter Olympics In Danger? North Korea Is A Real Threat — But Pyeongchang Has A Plan

4 January 2018

Tags: Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, United States, North Korea

Embedded thumbnail for President Trump&#039;s Nuclear Button Tweet

President Trump's Nuclear Button Tweet

3 January 2018

Tags: Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, United States, North Korea, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, Pacific

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"“In relation to that particular U.S. intelligence assessment, the language is always worth paying very close attention to. The assessment states that North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM,” he says. “That’s subtly different from saying that those weapons fit in a survivable re-entry vehicle. In casual conversation, it may be natural to make the inference between the two,” he continues. “In an intelligence assessment, it needs to be absolutely explicit.”"

North Korea's Nuclear Threats To U.S.: What Pyongyang Can And Can't Do (Yet)

12 August 2017 Tags: Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, North Korea, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

"Mr. Plant said he hoped that, behind the scenes, diplomats from the two sides were meeting in private to defuse the crisis. “There are still very competent people in the State Department and in the White House capable of suggesting and conducting that course of action,” Mr. Plant said, adding that he was not confident that Mr. Trump himself would pursue such a course."

American Allies and Adversaries Urge Caution on North Korea

11 August 2017 Tags: Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, United States, North Korea, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

""I think part of Trump's most recent comments … you'll recall on the campaign trail he made a series of controversial comments about Japan and South Korea, potentially interest being served by developing nuclear weapons. And then when challenged he really doubled down and said maybe it would be a really great idea. So I see this most recent statement as part of that trend. I think the slightly encouraging thing is the statement that we've now had from Mattis, in particular, which starts to re-emphasise over the military angle the diplomatic side of things.""

War with North Korea would be 'catastrophic' - Mattis

10 August 2017 Tags: Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, North America, North Korea, Global Security Issues, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

"This missile isn’t meant as a first-strike, bolt-from-the-blue nuclear delivery system. It’s meant to directly threaten the US leadership, so that it thinks again before considering a military solution to the North Korea problem. A first strike from this system wouldn’t deter US-led regime change; it would stimulate it."

North Korea's nuclear threat is real enough. Here is how the West must respond

31 July 2017 Tags: Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, North Korea, Global Security Issues, Proliferation and Nuclear Policy

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