Mariana Budjeryn

Belfer Center Fellowships are open for application through December 1, 2025.

@mbudjeryn.bsky.social, Senior Researcher at MIT and Associate with the @managingtheatom.bsky.social, reflects on her time at Harvard Kennedy School as "life changing."

On Trump’s recent meeting with Putin, “The expectations here on the ground have been very low,” says Mariana Budjeryn, research associate at SSP’s Center for Nuclear Security Policy.
@mbudjeryn.bsky.social joins other experts in discussing the Alaska Summit via @thebulletin.org:
youtu.be/1m-Qih8V4Y4

YouTube video by FRANCE 24 English Trump-Putin summit: 'Expectations on the ground have been very low' • FRANCE 24 English

Whatever points have been agreed on between Trump and Putin, they have to sell it to not only Zelenskyy, but to European leaders and the Ukrainian people, says Mariana Budjeryn (@mbudjeryn.bsky.social), research associate at SSP’s Center for Nuclear Policy, via @france24.com
youtu.be/9I25wib8qjg?...

The Disintegration of the USSR and the Fate of the Soviet Nuclear Arsenal: Assessing Ukraine's Relinquishment of Nuclear Weapons Left on Its Territory Mariana Budjeryn, Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022. 328 pp. $34.95.Editor's Introduction: Mariana B...

New in the Journal of Cold War Studies (Winter 2025): A forum on @mbudjeryn.bsky.social book "Inheriting the Bomb", featuring insights from Steven Pifer, Polina Sinovets, Robin E. Möser, and a reply from Budjeryn:
direct.mit.edu/jcws/article...

🗨️"Pleasing #Trump isn’t #Putin's priority. Putin has no reason to stop."

👉 @belfercenter.bsky.social‘s @mbudjeryn.bsky.social ‬

➡️Full show: f24.my/BJVm.x

@en.france24.com #Trump #Ukraine

The Most Significant Long-Term Consequence of the U.S. Strikes on Iran It’s not the damage to Fordow or Natanz.

My piece for @carnegieendowment.org on the impact of US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, including the damage, long-term pathways to reconstitution, internal debates in Iran, and the future of the IAEA carnegieendowment.org/emissary/202...

Why am I so unimpressed by these strikes? Israel and the US have failed to target significant elements of Iran's nuclear materials and production infrastructure. RISING LION and MIDNIGHT HAMMER are tactically brilliant, but may turn out to be strategic failures. 🧵 1/17

Living through my very own solstice: the Ukrainian translation of Inheriting the Bomb was announced today and is available for pre-order. Out in print in August. Hoping it will contribute to a fact-based discussion of Ukraine’s nuclear history.

🗨️"The narrative that #Ukraine is doomed or #Russia is winning is misleading. Ukraine is not a lost cause with sufficient support."

👉 @harvardkennedy.bsky.social’s @mbudjeryn.bsky.social

📺Full show: www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/...

@en.france24.com

Russia Invaded Ukraine Three Times After Ukraine Gave Up Nuclear Missiles In 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. Russia invaded anyway. Now, more nations ask: Why disarm if those promises mean nothing? Despite US President Trump…

@mbudjeryn.bsky.social @belfercenter.bsky.social:

"The failure of the #BudapestMemorandum and the crisis of confidence it has generated may well be the most significant nuclear security challenge of our time."

@globaldefensenews.bsky.social @globaldefense.bsky.social @sceeus-ui.bsky.social

Day 1: @mbudjeryn.bsky.social, George Perkovich, Ali Vaez, Andrea Mitchell, @richardmnephew.bsky.social, the Hon. Christopher Ford, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Stephen J. Hadley, @ernestmoniz.bsky.social, @nancyayoussef.bsky.social, @ctbto.bsky.social, and @jamiekwong.bsky.social.

H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-29 on Budjeryn, Inheriting the Bomb 28 March 2025 | PDF: https://issforum.org/to/jrt16-29 | Website: rjissf.org | X: @HDiplo Editor: Diane Labrosse Commissioning Editor: Elisabeth Roehrlich Production Editor: Christopher Ball Pre…

H-Diplo roundtable of my book is finally out! Grateful to Anna-Mart van Wyck, Valeria Hesse, and Mark Kramer for their reviews, to Polina Sinovets and Iryna Maksymenko for the introduction, and to Elisabeth Roehrlich and Diane Labrosse for guiding the process through to completion.

American war planning usually takes place in highly secure facilities. But the Trump administration planned its strikes on the Houthis using a group chat—and accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor in chief, @jeffreygoldberg.bsky.social. theatln.tc/AmsjsuT6

Not to beat a dead horse, but in this article, just published by @peterpomerantsev.bsky.social, people in the "four regions" so overwhelmingly want to be Russian that they do clandestine book clubs and literally risk jail to discuss Ukrainian books, 200,000 of which got destroyed in their town alone

I once received an electric shock during torture only for writing for Radio Liberty: I was told that it was "a CIA structure and an enemy of Russia", and for that reason alone I was already guilty.
Now, the "enemy of Russia" is being destroyed by America itself, and my torture seems doubly in vain.

Alarmed by Trump, Poland Must Look at Nuclear Options, Premier Says As President Trump casts doubt on U.S. alliances, Poland needs to double its military manpower and consider more destructive weapons, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.

“I will repeat once again what seems incredible but is true: 500 million Europeans are begging 300 million Americans to protect us from 180 million Russians who have not been able to cope with 40 million Ukrainians for three years.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/w...

Dems? What Dems? This is a one party state now…

A vicious triangle: Ukraine wants peace. Trump wants a deal. And Putin wants Ukraine. Try squaring that.

Lessons from Ukraine’s Energy Front: A Conversation with Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, former CEO of Ukraine’s grid operator

Please join @belfercenter.bsky.social and Project on Managing the Atom on Wednesday, March 12 at 10am to discuss vulnerability and resilience of Ukraine's electrical grid in wartime, with Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, former CEO of Ukraine's grid operator. In person and online. To register click below.

We do if Musk says so.

Wonder if he’s out next Bolton, once the MAGA bros chew him up and spit him out.

Map of Stand Up for Science events, with official SUFS events in Red and solidarity events in Blue

WHERE WILL YOU BE ON MARCH 7TH!?

Head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ or the link in our bio to find your closest event—or add one if you're hosting one!

#standupforscience2025

Has Trump flipped Ukraine … for Russia? The disastrous Zelenzky visit to the White House caps a three-week spree of Trump breaking ranks with US traditional allies and making free concessions to Putin. The damage to US security interests is...

The disastrous Zelensky visit to the White House caps a spree of Trump breaking ranks with US traditional allies and making free concessions to Putin. The damage to US security interests is already done, writes former US Ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer.

thebulletin.org/2025/03/has-...

So wait a minute: The U.S. won't contribute troops to enforce a ceasefire, but it will use unarmed American civilians working for U.S. companies as a tripwire against the Russians?

YouTube video by Saturday Night Live Elon Musk Cold Open - SNL

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUpO...

Re Zelensky at the WH, yet again, feminists and trauma/abuse- informed thinkers are years ahead of political analysts.

There is no acceptable affect, no way to charm an abuser, and no “deal” other than playing very very dead that would change how Trump and his flying monkey Vance behaved.

Via Ulrich Kühn.

Could we please get the right photo, though? this is not the signature of the BM, but of the Trilateral Statement in Jan. 1994. BM was signed by Kuchma, not Kravchuk.

❗️President's of Ukraine shared his first tweet after the meeting.

Why Russia is more likely to go nuclear in Ukraine if it's winning In Ukraine, a winning Russia might have more to gain—and less to lose—from a nuclear strike than a retreating Russia.

I have gotten a lot of pushback against my argument that Russia could be incentivized to use a nuclear weapon against Ukraine if it can see a possibility of a big win in Ukraine. It was formulated in more auspicious times. It begins to look less far fetched with each day and each hour.