Richard Cupitt

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Richard T. Cupitt is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Partnerships in Proliferation Prevention program at Stimson. His areas of expertise include WMD nonproliferation, export controls, and foreign policy. Prior to joining Stimson, he served as the Special Coordinator for U.N. Security Council resolution 1540 in the Office of Counterproliferation Initiatives at the U.S. State Department from 2012 through 2016. As such, he led U.S. government efforts to further implementation of the more than two hundred legally binding obligations and recommendations of the resolution, which aims to combat proliferation of WMD and their means of delivery, especially to non-state actors such as terrorists and criminal organizations. From 2005 to 2012, he worked as an Expert for the Committee established pursuant to U.N. Security Council resolution 1540 (2004), a subsidiary body of the U.N. Security Council, monitoring and facilitating implementation of the resolution in all U.N. Member States, along with building relationships with more than forty international organizations, coordinating assistance activities, and conducting outreach with industry and academia. Elected coordinator of the Experts from 2010-2012, his also led the work in several specialized areas including combating the financing of proliferation and export controls.    

From 2004 to 2008, Cupitt also held a position as Scholar-in-Residence at American University and worked as Special Adviser for International Cooperation for the U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce in the Bureau of Industry and Security from 2002-2004. From 1988 to 2002, Cupitt had various posts for the Center International Trade and Security (CITS) of the University of Georgia, including Associate Director, as well as acting as a visiting scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in 2000-2002. Cupitt also has held academic positions at Emory University and the University of North Texas. He has produced four books and more than 20 peer-reviewed articles on nonproliferation export controls, along with dozens of other security or trade-oriented publications. In addition, he has served as a consultant on projects for the U.S. State Department, several U.S. national commissions, U.S. national nuclear laboratories, and various international organizations.

To learn more about how Cupitt got his start in WMD nonproliferation, export controls and foreign policy, read his My Story.

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