• Unblocking the Road to Zero

Dr. Barry M. Blechman is the co-founder of the Stimson Center, and a distinguished fellow focused on nuclear disarmament. He was chair of Stimson's board from 1989 to 2007.  Blechman founded DFI International Inc., a research consultancy, in 1984 and served as its CEO until 2007.  

Blechman has nearly 50 years of distinguished service in national security, in both the public and private sectors. He is an expert on political and military policies, military strategy, and defense budgets and industries. Blechman has worked in the Departments of State and Defense, and at the Office of Management and Budget. Among other boards and commissions, Blechman served on the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States (1998-99), the Defense Policy Board (2002-06), and the Department of State Advisory Committee on Transformational Diplomacy (2005-08). 

Blechman holds a PhD in international relations from Georgetown University, has taught at several universities, and has written extensively on national security issues.  In 2010, he co-chaired the Iran Study Group with Daniel Brumberg of the US Institute of Peace; the group’s report is called Engagement, Coercion, and Iran’s Nuclear Challenge.  Blechman’s recent publications include Elements of a Nuclear Disarmament Treaty and National Perspectives on Nuclear Disarmament.  Both volumes, which he co-edited with Alexander Bollfrass, were published by Stimson in 2010. 

Selected Publications

Elements of a Nuclear Disarmament Treaty (Stimson, 2010) - with Alexander Bollfrass

Unblocking the Road to Zero (Stimson, 2009, editor and contributor)

"Phase Out the Bomb" (Foreign Policy, 1994) - with Cathleen Fischer

 The Politics of National Security: Congress and U. S. Defense Policy (Oxford University Press, 1990) - with W. Philip Ellis

"What in the Name of God is Strategic Superiority?" (Political Science Quarterly, 1982) - with Robert Powell

 Force Without War (Brookings Institution, 1978) - with Stephen S. Kaplan