Zia Mian is a physicist and co-director of Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security (SGS), part of the School of Public and International Affairs, where he has worked since 1997. His research interests include nuclear arms control, nonproliferation, disarmament, and global peace, justice, and security. In 2021, he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for “promoting global nuclear risk reduction and disarmament through academic research, public speaking, technical and popular writing, and organizing efforts.”
Mian serves as Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Group of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Established in 2023, the Scientific Advisory Group is the first international scientific body created by a United Nations treaty process for the purpose of advancing nuclear disarmament. In 2022, Mian was appointed for a two-year term to the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. It advises the UN Secretary-General on matters concerning arms limitation and disarmament, including studies and research.
Mian is a co-founder and serves on the steering committee of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. Founded at SGS in 2020, the Coalition works to reduce the threats from nuclear weapons by educating and mobilizing advocacy within the physical sciences communities in the United States and internationally to advance substantive changes in nuclear arsenals, force postures, and declaratory policies, and to achieve nuclear disarmament.
Mian also has served since 2016 as co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), a sixteen-country independent group of experts working to strengthen policy initiatives to end production and eliminate stockpiles of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, the key ingredients for nuclear weapons.
Mian serves on the Board of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Previously he served on the Board of the Arms Control Association, a national nonpartisan group promoting effective arms control policies, and of Peace Action, the largest US grassroots peace network. He also is co-editor of Science & Global Security, the international peer-reviewed journal of arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament science.
Mian received the 2014 Linus Pauling Legacy Award for “his accomplishments as a scientist and as a peace activist in contributing to the global effort for nuclear disarmament and for a more peaceful world.”
In 2018, he was selected as one of the “60 faces of CND” by the UK Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to mark its 60th anniversary.
Mian received the American Physical Society’s 2019 Leo Szilard Award “For promoting global peace and nuclear disarmament particularly in South Asia, through academic research, public speaking, technical and popular writing and organizing efforts to ban nuclear weapons.”
Mian is the co-author of Unmaking the Bomb (MIT Press, 2014), editor and co-editor of several books, and author and co-author of academic and policy articles. In addition to his writing, he has made two documentary films on peace and security in South Asia.
Research Interests
Zia Mian's work focuses on nuclear disarmament, arms control and nonproliferation issues worldwide. He is working on the implementation of the 2017 United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons after it enters into force, focusing especially on its disarmament and verification obligations. His work also aims to contribute to the long-standing efforts to achieve an international treaty verifiably banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons (FMCT), including through the International Panel on Fissile Materials. Mian directs the SGS Project on Peace and Security in South Asia which has worked since 1997 to inform South Asian nuclear-policy debates through technical and policy research and collaboration and is also part of the effort at SGS to develop a possible resolution of the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program.
Publications
BOOKS
H. Feiveson, A. Glaser, Zia Mian, and F. von Hippel, Unmaking the Bomb: A Fissile Material Approach to Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014.
S. Kothari and Zia Mian, with K. Bhasin, A. H. Nayyar, and M. Tahseen (eds.), Bridging Partition: People's Initiative for Peace between India and Pakistan, Orient Longman, New Delhi, 2010.
D. Ahmad, I. Ahmad, Z. Ahmad, and Zia Mian (eds.), Between Past and Future: Selected Essays on South Asia by Eqbal Ahmad Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2004.
S. Kothari and Zia Mian (eds.), Out of The Nuclear Shadow, Zed Press, London, 2001.
D. Ahmad, I. Ahmad, and Zia Mian (eds.), Eqbal Ahmad Kay Muntakhab Mazameen (Selected Essays of Eqbal Ahmad), Mashal Press, Lahore, 2001.
Zia Mian and I. Ahmad (eds.), Making Enemies, Creating Conflict - Pakistan's Crises of State and Society, Mashal Press, Lahore, 1997.
Zia Mian (ed.), Pakistan's Atomic Bomb And The Search For Security, Gautam Publishers, Lahore, 1995.
FILM
Pakistan and India Under the Nuclear Shadow, a documentary film by Pervez Hoodhboy and Zia Mian, 2001. Screenings: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (May 2003).
Crossing the Lines: Kashmir, Pakistan, India, a documentary film by Pervez Hoodhboy and Zia Mian, 2004. Screenings: First Independent South Asian Film Festival, Seattle (September 2004); Kara Film Festival, Karachi (December 2004); South Asian Human Rights Film Festival, New York (April 2005); Pakistani Film, Media and Arts Festival, Glasgow, Scotland (September 2005); Bite the Mango Film Festival, National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford, England (September 2005); Himalaya Film Festival, Amsterdam (November 2005); Open Frame International Film Festival and Forum, New Delhi, India (September 2008).
SELECTED ARTICLES, BOOK CHAPTERS, AND REPORTS
Charlotte Selton, Zia Mian, Stewart Prager, Mobilizing Physicists for Nuclear Arms Control Advocacy, Physics and Society, Vol. 51, No. 4, October 2022.
Zia Mian, Pakistan, in Allison Pytlak and Ray Acheson Allison (eds.), Assuring Destruction Forever: 2022 Edition, Reaching Critical Will, 2022.
Sébastien Philippe and Zia Mian, The TPNW and Nuclear Disarmament Verification: Shifting the Paradigm, in Pavel Podvig (ed.), Verifying disarmament in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, UNIDIR, 2022.
Zia Mian and Benoît Pelopidas, Producing Collapse: Nuclear Weapons as Preparation to End Civilization, Miguel Centeno, Peter W. Callahan, Paul Larcey, and Thayer Patterson (eds.), How Worlds Collapse: What History, Systems, and Complexity Can Teach Us About Our Modern World and Fragile Future, Routledge, 2023.
Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana, India’s Inadvertent Missile Launch Underscores the Risk of Accidental Nuclear Warfare Scientific American, April 8, 2022.
Moritz Kütt and Zia Mian, Setting the Deadline for Nuclear Weapon Removal from Host States under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, March 2022.
Zia Mian, Establishing Nuclear Weapons Obligations for a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, Volume 4, Issue 2, 2021.
Zia Mian, Stewart Prager, and Frank N. von Hippel, Once More Into the Breach: Physicists Mobilize Again to Counter the Nuclear Threat, Arms Control Today, May 2021.
Zia Mian, Pakistan, in Allison Pytlak and Ray Acheson Allison (eds.), Assuring Destruction Forever: 2020 Edition, Reaching Critical Will, 2020.
Robert Goldston, Zia Mian, Ali Nouri, Stewart Prager, Paul G. Richards, Andrew Rosenberg, Lynn R. Sykes, Frank von Hippel, Scientists Must Rise in Defense of Democracy, Scientific American, October 2, 2020.
Jessica Sleight, Zia Mian, Frank von Hippel, Bruce Blair: Challenging the accidental nuclear war machine at every turn, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, August 11, 2020.
Stewart Prager, Steve Fetter, Alex Glaser, Zia Mian, Sébastien Philippe, and Frank von Hippel, The Increasing Peril of Nuclear Weapons: And how physicists can help reduce the threat, APS News, Volume 29, Number 7, July/August 2020.
Stewart Prager, Steve Fetter, Alexander Glaser, Zia Mian, Frank von Hippel, Physicists mobilize to reduce the nuclear threat. Again. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 24, 2020.
Zia Mian, Foreword: On Nuclear Weapons: Denuclearization, Demilitarization and Disarmament; Selected Writings of Richard Falk, edited by Stefan Andersson, with Curt Dahlgren, Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Zia Mian, Scientists and the Struggle Against Nuclear Weapons Today: What Would Szilard Do?, Physics & Society, 48 (4), October 2019.
M. Kütt and Zia Mian, Setting the Deadline for Nuclear Weapon Destruction under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, October 15, 2019.
T. Patton, S. Philippe, and Zia Mian, Fit for Purpose: An Evolutionary Strategy for the Implementation and Verification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, September 24, 2019.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, S. Pandey, M. V. Ramana, India, Pakistan, Kashmir: Taking the War Option Off the Table, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September 23, 2019.
Zia Mian, M. V. Ramana, and A. H. Nayyar, Nuclear Submarines in South Asia: New Risks and Dangers, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 2 (1), June 11, 2019.
Zia Mian, Scientists, the Nuclear Threat, and a Treaty To Ban Nuclear Weapons, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, October 31, 2018.
Zia Mian, The INF Treaty and the Crises of Arms Control, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, October 24, 2018.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, and M. V. Ramana, The Twenty Years’ Crisis of Nuclear South Asia, 1998–2018: A Workshop Report, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, October 17, 2018.
A. Glaser and Zia Mian, Denuclearizing North Korea: A Verified, Phased Approach, Science, 361 (6406), September 7, 2018.
Zia Mian, The Sound And Fury And Silences Of Donald Trump, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 10, 2018.
M. Kütt, Zia Mian, and P. Podvig, Global Stocks and Production of Fissile Materials, in SIPRI Yearbook 2018: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Oxford University Press, 2018.
Zia Mian, Pakistan, in Allison Pytlak (ed.), Assuring Destruction Forever, Reaching Critical Will, 2018.
Zia Mian, After The Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty: A New Disarmament Politics, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July 2017.
Zia Mian, T. Patton and A. Glaser, Addressing Verification in the Nuclear Ban Treaty, Arms Control Today, 47 (5), June 2017.
Zia Mian, T. Patton and A. Glaser, A Path to Universality through Cooperative, Transparent, Verifiable and Irreversible Disarmament, Working Paper, A/CONF.229/2017/NGO/WP.46, United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination, New York, June 22, 2017.
Zia Mian, The Coming Ban On Nuclear Weapons, Project Syndicate, March 24, 2017.
Zia Mian, Kashmir, Climate Change, and Nuclear War, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, December 7, 2016.
A. Glaser and Zia Mian, Japan and U.S. Nuclear Arms Control and Disarmament Policy Under the Trump Administration: A Look into the Cloudy Crystal Ball, Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 15 (8), April 15, 2017.
P. Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian, Nuclear Battles In South Asia, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 4, 2016.
Zia Mian, Towards a Ban on All Production of Fissile Materials that Can Be Used for Nuclear Weapons, in FM(C)T: Elements of the Emerging Consensus, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), Geneva, 2016.
Zia Mian, A Step Toward What? Nuclear Weapons, the Test Ban, and a World Without Nuclear Testing, Nonproliferation Review, 23 (3-4), 2016, pp. 301-315.
I. Helfand, A. Haines, T. Ruff, H. Kristensen and P. Lewis and Zia Mian, The Growing Threat of Nuclear War and the Role of the Health Community, World Medical Journal, 62 (3), October 2016.
P. Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian, Securing Pakistan’s Nuclear Arsenal – The Threat from Within, in B. Volders and T. Sauer (eds.), Nuclear Terrorism: Countering the Threat, Routledge, 2016.
Zia Mian, M. Schöppner and F. von Hippel, Banning the Production of Highly Enriched Uranium, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March 18, 2016.
M. V. Ramana and Zia Mian, Scrambling to Sell a Nuclear Middle East, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 2, 2016.
A. Glaser, Zia Mian, S. H. Mousavian, and F. von Hippel, Building on the Iran Deal: Steps toward a Middle Eastern Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, Arms Control Today, December 2015.
Zia Mian and F. von Hippel, Policy and Technical Issues Facing a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, in J. F. Pilat and N. E. Busch (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Nuclear Proliferation and Policy, Routledge, 2015.
A. H. Nayyar and Zia Mian, Pakistan and the Nasr Missile, Economic and Political Weekly, 50 (39), September 26, 2015.
Zia Mian, Nuclear Programs in India and Pakistan, in P. S. Corden, D. Hafemeister and P. Zimmerman (eds.), Nuclear Weapon Issues in the 21st Century, American Institute of Physics, 2014.
Zia Mian and A. Glaser (eds.), Global Fissile Material Report 2015: Nuclear Weapon and Fissile Material Stockpiles and Production, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, 2015.
P. Meyer, H. Salander, Zia Mian, Why the NPT Needs More Transparency by the Nuclear Weapon States, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, April 8, 2015.
Zia Mian, Pakistan, in Ray Acheson (ed.), Assuring Destruction Forever: 2015 Edition, Reaching Critical Will, New York, April 2015.
Zia Mian, Out of the Nuclear Shadow: Scientists and the Struggle against the Bomb, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 2015.
M.V. Ramana and Zia Mian, The Doctrine of the Nuclear Sword: Nuclear Weapons and Militarist Psychology In India And Pakistan, Himal Southasian, September 20, 2014
A. Glaser, Zia Mian, H. Mousavian, and F. von Hippel, Agreeing on Limits for Iran's Centrifuge Program: A Two-Stage Strategy, Arms Control Today, July/August 2014.
A. Ahmad, F. von Hippel, A. Glaser, and Zia Mian, A Win-Win Solution For Iran’s Arak Reactor, Arms Control Today, April 2014.
P. Hoodbhoy, Zia Mian, and A. H. Nayyar, The Nuclear Shadow Over Karachi, Newsweek-Pakistan, March 22, 2014.
P. Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian, Changing Nuclear Thinking in Pakistan, Policy Brief Number 9, Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, February 2014.
P. Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian, Nuclear Fears, Hopes and Realities in Pakistan, International Affairs, 90 (5), 2014.
Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana, Asian War Machines, Critical Asian Studies, 46 (2), 2014.
Zia Mian and A. Glaser, Confronting the Perpetual Menace to Human Security: Openness as a Tool to Enable Nuclear Disarmament, Nonproliferation Review, 21 (1), 2014.
M. V. Ramana and Zia Mian, One Size Doesn't Fit All: Social Priorities and Technical Conflicts for Small Modular Reactors, Energy Research and Social Science, 2, 2014.https://sgs.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/2020-01/ramana-mian-2014.pdf
A. H. Nayyar, P. Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian, Nuclear Karachi, Dawn, December 16, 2013.
Zia Mian, Wanted: An End to Nuclear Nationalism in South Asia, CTBTO Spectrum, 20, July 2013.
P. Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian, Speculations on Nuclear South Asia, in A. Najam and M. Yusuf (eds.), South Asia 2060: Envisioning Regional Futures, Anthem Press, New York, 2013.
Zia Mian and A. Glaser, Global Fissile Material Report 2013: Increasing Transparency of Nuclear Warhead and Fissile Material Stocks as a Step toward Disarmament, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, October 2013.
F. N. von Hippel, S. Hossein Mousavian, E. Kiyaei, H. A. Feiveson and Zia Mian, Fissile Material Controls in the Middle East: Steps toward a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and all other Weapons of Mass Destruction, Research Report 11, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, October 2013.
Zia Mian and A. Glaser (eds.), Increasing Transparency of Nuclear-warhead and Fissile-material Stocks as a Step toward Disarmament, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, April 2013.
Zia Mian, The Coming of the Atomic Age to Pakistan, in P. Hoodbhoy (ed.), Confronting the Bomb: Pakistani and Indian Scientists Speak Out, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2012.
Zia Mian, Commanding and Controlling Nuclear Weapons, in P. Hoodbhoy (ed.), Confronting the Bomb: Pakistani and Indian Scientists Speak Out, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2012.
Zia Mian and S. K. Weiner, America's Pakistan, Middle East Report Online, March 2012.
Zia Mian, Pakistan in R. Acheson (ed.), Assuring Destruction Forever: Nuclear Weapon Modernization Around the World, Reaching Critical Will, New York, March, 2012.
P. Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian, Pakistan, the Army and the Conflict Within, Middle East Report Online, July 12, 2011.
Zia Mian, Processes, Conditions and Stages for a Humanitarian Approach to Achieve and Maintain a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, Acronym Institute Workshop on Ways and Means to Prohibit and Eliminate Nuclear Weapons Using a Humanitarian-centered Approach, Glion, Switzerland, June 23-24, 2011.
Zia Mian, Pakistan’s Fateful Nuclear Option, in K. Visweswaran (ed.), Perspectives on Modern South Asia: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, 2011.
Zia Mian and A. Glaser (eds.),Global Fissile Material Report 2011: Nuclear Weapon and Fissile Material Stockpiles and Production, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, 2011.
Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana, The Enduring Power of Mass Production, Mass Consumption and Mass Destruction, Development, 54 (2), 2011.
H. Feiveson, A. Glaser, Zia Mian, and F. von Hippel (eds.), Global Fissile Material Report 2010: Balancing the Books, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, 2010.
Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana, Imbricated Regional Rivalries and Global Order: South Asia, China and the United States, Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, Washington, DC, July 2010.
Zia Mian, Charting a Path toward Eliminating Nuclear Weapons, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September 27, 2010.
Zia Mian, Obama’s Nuclear Postures, Middle East Report Online, July 5, 2010.
T. Cochran, H. Feiveson, Zia Mian, M. V. Ramana, M. Schneider, and F. von Hippel, It’s Time to Give Up on Breeder Reactors, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 2010.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Playing the Nuclear Game: Pakistan and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, Arms Control Today, April 2010.
A. H. Nayyar and Zia Mian, The Limited Military Utility of Pakistan’s Battle-field Use of Nuclear Weapons in Response to Large-scale Indian Conventional Attack, 61, Pakistan Security Research Unit, Peace Studies Department, Bradford University, November 2010.
Zia Mian, Toward a Fissile Material (Cut-off) Treaty, in Ray Acheson (ed.), Beyond Arms Control: Challenges and Choices for Nuclear Disarmament, Reaching Critical Will, New York, 2010.
A. Glaser, Zia Mian and F. von Hippel, Time to Ban Production of Materials for Nuclear Weapons, Scientific American, January 2010.
Zia Mian, Beyond the Security Debate: The Moral and Legal Dimensions of Abolition, in G. Perkovich and J. Acton (eds.), Abolishing Nuclear Weapons: A Debate, Carnegie Endowment, Washington, DC, 2009.
Zia Mian, Fevered with Dreams of the Future: The Coming of the Atomic Age to Pakistan in Itty Abraham (ed.), South Asia Cultures of the Bomb, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2009.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Pakistan and the Energy Challenge, in L. Mez, M. Schneider, and S. Thomas (eds.), International Perspectives on Energy Policy and the Role of Nuclear Power, Multi-Science Publishing, Brentwood, 2009.
H. Feiveson, A. Glaser, Zia Mian, and F. von Hippel (eds.), Global Fissile Material Report 2009: A Path to Nuclear Disarmament , International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, 2009.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, and R. Rajaraman, Exploring Uranium Resource Constraints on Fissile Material Production in Pakistan, Science & Global Security, 17, 2009.
Zia Mian and A. Glaser, A Frightening Nuclear Legacy, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 64 (4), September/October 2008.
Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana, Going MAD: Ten Years of the Bomb in South Asia, Economic and Political Weekly, 43 (26/27), 2008.
H. Feiveson, A. Glaser, Zia Mian, and F. von Hippel, eds. Global Fissile Material Report 2008: Scope and Verification of a Fissile Material (Cutoff) Treaty, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, 2008.
Zia Mian and A. Glaser, Resource Letter PSNAC-1: Physics and Society: Nuclear Arms Control, American Journal of Physics, 75 (12), December 2007.
H. Feiveson, A. Glaser, Zia Mian, and F. von Hippel (eds.), Global Fissile Material Report 2007, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, 2007.
H. Feiveson, A. Glaser, Zia Mian, and F. von Hippel (eds.), Global Fissile Material Report 2006, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, 2006.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, R. Rajaraman, and M. V. Ramana, Fissile Materials in South Asia: The Implications of the US-India Nuclear Deal, Research Report 1, International Panel on Fissile Materials, Princeton, NJ, September 2006.
Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana, Wrong Ends, Means, and Needs: Behind the U.S. Nuclear Deal with India, Arms Control Today, January/February 2006.
Zia Mian, The Empire of Fear in A. Vanaik (ed.), Selling US Wars, Olive Branch Press, Northampton, 2007.
Zia Mian and A. Glaser, Life in a Nuclear Powered Crowd, INESAP Information Bulletin, 26, June 2006.
Zia Mian, Blinded by the Bomb, Himal Southasian, November 1, 2005.
Zia Mian, The American Problem: The United States and Noncompliance in the World of Arms Control and Nonproliferation in E. C. Luck and M. W. Doyle (eds.), International Law and Organization: Closing the Compliance Gap, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2004.
R. Rajaraman, Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, Nuclear Civil Defence in South Asia:Is It Feasible?, Economic and Political Weekly, November 2004.
Zia Mian, A. H. Nayyar, M. V. Ramana, Making Weapons, Talking Peace, Economic and Political Weekly, July 2004.
Zia Mian, At War with the World: Nuclear Weapons, Development and Security, Development, 47 (1), March 2004.
Zia Mian, R. Rajaraman and M. V. Ramana, Early Warning in South Asia: Constraints and Implications, Science & Global Security, 11 (2), 2003.
Zia Mian, How Do You Confront a Century? Himal Southasian, December 1, 2003.
P. Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian, The India-Pakistan Conflict – Towards The Failure Of Nuclear Deterrence, Special Policy Forum 9/11, Nautilus Institute, November 13, 2002.
Andrew Lichterman, Zia Mian, M.V. Ramana, and Jürgen Scheffran, Beyond Missile Defense – a framework agreement to restrict the development, testing and deployment of all ballistic missiles and missile defenses, preface by UN Undersecretary General on Disarmament Jayantha Dhanapala, Abolition 2000, October 2002.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, An Initial Analysis of 85Kr Production and Dispersion from Reprocessing in India and Pakistan, Science & Global Security, 10 (3), September-December 2002.
Zia Mian, R. Rajaraman and M. V. Ramana Possession and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons in South Asia: An Assessment of Some Risks, Economic and Political Weekly, June 2002.
Zia Mian, A Nuclear Tiger by the Tail: Some Problems of Command and Control in South Asia, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies Report 328, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, June 2001.
Zia Mian, A Proposal for an International Framework Convention on Fissile Materials, April 2000.
Zia Mian, Some Issues Associated with Pakistan's Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP), Working Paper 51, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, 2000.
Zia Mian and A. H. Nayyar, Pakistan's Chashma Nuclear Power Plant: A Preliminary Study Of Some Safety Issues And Estimates Of The Consequences Of A Severe Accident, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies Report 321, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, December 1999.
Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana, A Nuclear Gordian Knot: South Asia and the Limits of Deep Cuts, in H. Feiveson (ed.), The Nuclear Turning Point: A Blueprint for Deep Cuts and Dealerting of Nuclear Weapons, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, 1999.
Zia Mian, A Bomb, A Nation, A Leader Himal Southasian, June 1, 1999.
Zia Mian and M. V. Ramana, Diplomatic Judo: Using the NPT to Make the Nuclear-Weapons States Negotiate the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No. 36, April 1999.
Zia Mian, The Politics of South Asia's Nuclear Crisis, Medicine & Global Survival, 5 (2), October 1998.
Zia Mian, Homi Bhabha Killed A Crow, in Zia Mian and A. Nandy, The Nuclear Debate: Ironies and Immoralities, Fellowship in South Asian Alternatives, Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1998.
Zia Mian, Disarmament's "Auto Da Fe", Social Science Research Council (SSRC)-MacArthur Foundation Program on International Peace and Security newsletter, Volume 10, February 1998.
Zia Mian, Renouncing the Nuclear Option in Pakistan and the Bomb, in S. Ahmad and D. Cortight (eds.), Public Opinion and Nuclear Options, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, 1998.
Teaching
Life in a Nuclear-Armed World (FRS 144). This course looks at what it has meant to live with the bomb for the past seventy years. We use scholarly and popular writings as well as movies and documentaries to understand what it means to make nuclear weapons and to be prepared to use them, how and why the bomb has spread to nine states, the threat of nuclear terrorism, and the links between nuclear weapons and civilian nuclear energy programs. We look also at the economic, political, social, cultural, psychological and environmental costs of a nuclear armed world through the lives of people in nuclear communities and the struggles of the peace movement to ban the bomb. We explore the prospects for the future of nuclear weapons and the implications of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by 122 countries in 2017 at the United Nations. Offered: Spring 2019.
Talks and Podcasts
War in Ukraine, Nuclear Weapons and Why We Need to Abolish Them, Back from the Brink, 31 March 2022.
The War in Ukraine -- Russia, the United States, NATO and the Nuclear Danger, Princeton Coalition for Peace Action, 27 March 2022
Nuclear Disarmament, Science History Podcast: Episode 48, November 11, 2021.
Threat of Nuclear Weapons, STEMPods Insights, February 26, 2021.
Why Nuclear Weapons Remain an Existential Threat and What to Do About It, Truth, Dissent & the Legacy of Daniel Ellsberg, April 30 – May 1, 2021
A Conceivable Horizon Of Horror: Current Crises Of Nuclear Arms Control And Disarmament, Public lecture, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge, UK, 30 October 2019.
Crossing the Line: Kashmir, Pakistan and India Under the Nuclear Shadow, Seminar at Center for Contemporary South Asia (CCSA), Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, Rhode Island, October 25, 2019.
Scientists and the Struggle Against Nuclear Weapons Today: What Would Szilard Do?, 2019 Leo Szilard Award talk at the American Physical Society meeting, Boston, 8 March 2019, Physics and Society, Volume 48, Number 4, October 2019.
Is The Nuclear Order Worth Saving?, Press the Button podcast, Ploughshares Fund, Washington DC, October 15, 2019.
Assessing the Nuclear Danger, Podcast with Ambassador Cameron Munter, EastWest Institute, New York, September 5, 2019.
Life and Death in a Nuclear Armed World, Conference on Steps to a Nuclear Weapons-Free World, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, April 14, 2019.
Current Crises of Nuclear Arms Control and Non-proliferation: Science, Technology and Policy Challenges, Department of Physics, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, January 20, 2019.
The Future of Nuclear Weapons, Panel Discussion, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, January 20, 2019.
Crises of Nuclear Arms Control and Non-proliferation: Nuclear Weapons and the 21st Century, New Zealand Institute of International Affairs on Christchurch, Christchurch, New Zealand, December 11, 2018.
Forum on the TPNW, Global Youth Forum on Nuclear Disarmament and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Auckland, New Zealand, December 6, 2018.
TPNW: Anything You’d Like to Know About the Treaty, Towards a World Free of Nuclear Weapons: Pacific Conference on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Auckland, New Zealand, December 6, 2018.
TPNW’s Contribution to Regional/Global Security, Towards a World Free of Nuclear Weapons: Pacific Conference on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Auckland, New Zealand, December 5, 2018.
What if North Korea Joins The Ban Treaty, Ban Treaty Study Group: Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations, New York, October 10, 2018.
Setting the TPNW Deadline for Nuclear Weapons Elimination, Ban Treaty Study Group: Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations, New York, October 10, 2018.
Nuclear Disarmament Movements Then and Now, Toward a Theory of Peace Symposium: Randall Forsberg and Her Legacy, Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, September 14, 2018.
The New Nuclear Disarmament Movement, Panel discussion, Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, September 13, 2018.
Twenty Years of Nuclear South Asia, Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, September 13, 2018.
The Twenty Years’ Crisis of Nuclear South Asia 1998-2018, Workshop, Liu Institute for Global Affairs, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, May 24, 2018.
The Dangers of a Great Power War, International Conference: Two Minutes to Midnight: How Do We Move from Geopolitical Conflict to Nuclear Abolition?, New York, May 12, 2018.
An NPT Weapon State joining the Treaty, Simulation and discussion for the Ban Treaty Study Group: Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, May 7, 2018.
Raising the Risk of Nuclear War: The US, Russia, North Korea and Iran, Nuclear Disarmament Working Group, Germantown Monthly Meeting, Philadelphia, April 26, 2018.
Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty and FMCT, International Panel on Fissile Materials, annual meeting, Seoul, South Korea, April 15, 2018.
Resourcing FM(C)T Inspections, Informal Consultative Meeting on the work of the High-Level Expert Preparatory Group on a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, UN, New York, February 16, 2018.
Proposal for a Framework Agreement Structure of a Treaty on Fissile Material for Nuclear Weapons or Other Nuclear Explosive Devices, Informal Consultative Meeting on the work of the High Level Expert Preparatory Group on a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, UN, New York, February 15, 2018.
Restoring American Power: War, Peace, International Order - and Donald Trump, Princeton Citizen-Scientists Day of Action, Princeton University, March 6, 2017.