Welcome to the CNS Critical Issues Forum

The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) developed the Critical Issues Forum (CIF) to increase awareness of disarmament and nonproliferation issues and to engage and recruit the next generation of nonproliferation specialists. Specifically, CIF is designed to involve pre-college high school students and their teachers in issues of proliferation and control of weapons of mass destruction.

The CIF Program is supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Ford Foundation and hosted at The Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

CIF News for this project year 2008 - 2009

NEW or UPDATED items are in red.

The CIF topic for 2008 - 2009 is "Nuclear Disarmament: Challenges, Opportunities and Next Steps." Check the "Program Materials" link in the left-side menu for details.

Critical Issues Forum 2009 Conference Participants
at the Monterey Hyatt April 23-25, 2009

CIF News for 2007 - 2008

CIF provides students with instruction and guidance in research methodologies, including brainstorming, evaluation of content, synthesis of information, and writing. CIF emphasizes strategies that can be used with the Internet. The program involves nonproliferation specialists, scientists, and other professionals from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, NASA, the Naval Postgraduate School and the Defense Language Institute to ensure accuracy and appropriateness of content.

Critical Issues Forum is a national and international program originally created in 1996, the brainchild of Rick Alexander and Bill Robertson both of whom were at that time working at Los Alamos National Lab. The forum was designed to address the need of today’s high students to move beyond the anachronistic high school curriculum and examine contemporary topics using a Critical Thinking Curriculum Model. The first topic looked at the development of nuclear physics and the making of the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project of World War II.

Each year Rick and Bill added more high schools to the project and, with the aid of a core team of teachers including Sue Ann (Dobbyn) Jones, wrote several more modules dealing with terrorism, disposition of nuclear materials, nuclear nonproliferation, and biological and chemical warfare. In 1997 CIF spread to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where it was headed by Dr. Stephen Sesko. Dr. Sesko is now celebrating his 12 year anniversary with CIF.

Early in its history, CIF involved U.S. high schools from five western states. By 2002 - 2003, the CIF project included 13 high schools nationwide plus international participants from five high schools in Russia and one in the U.K. In 2003 - 2004 a total of 26 schools, 16 in the U.S. and 10 in Russia, participated. By 2004-2005, 11 schools in Russia plus 17 in the U.S. participated along with an observer from Japan.

CIF Programs since 2000