The Wisconsin Project carries out research and public education designed to inhibit the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. It is a non-partisan organization operating in Washington, DC, founded in 1986 in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Project’s main goal is to reduce the risk that global trade will accelerate the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Using open sources, the Project identifies entities linked to proliferation, maps proliferation networks, and publicizes transactions involving entities or items of concern. The Project also works with governments and exporters to strengthen compliance with national export restrictions and international agreements.
A Scoville Fellow would contribute to the research on proliferation networks described above to support the Project’s two principal programs: the Iran Watch website and the Risk Report database. Specific research areas would be identified on a monthly basis and could include: mapping entities facilitating financial transactions on behalf of North Korea based on recent sanctions; reviewing export enforcement cases for information about the procurement of controlled US technology by Chinese and Russian firms and individuals; identifying front companies and brokers used by Syria for the procurement of chemical weapon or missile related technology. This research would be used to build profiles of entities of concern and could also contribute to research memos, reports, or other written products.
In addition, a Scoville Fellow could support the Project’s public policy work on Iran by writing memos and reports for Iran Watch and helping to organize private roundtable discussions and briefings. To support the Project’s outreach on strategic trade controls, a Scoville Fellow could research a country’s compliance with the requirements of UN Security Council resolution 1540 or design scenario-based exercises for training events organized by the Project.
A unique skill gained by working at the Wisconsin Project is the ability to conduct rigorous open source research, to find and evaluate sources, and to use this research to write clear and fully supported analysis. Researchers at the Wisconsin Project also gain an in-depth knowledge of nonproliferation-related sanctions, the varying penalties of different U.S. sanctions authorities as well as sanctions imposed by countries around the world.