Listings of all CNS staff with areas of expertise, contact information, biographies, and recent publications.

Updated: Dec 3, 2009

Cristina Hansell

Cristina Hansell is Director of the Newly Independent States Nonproliferation Program (NISNP) and an adjunct professor at the Monterey Institute. She is a Ph.D. candidate in International Affairs at the University of California at San Diego, specializing in local government and center-region relations in Russia and China. She received an M.A. in Russian and Chinese history at the University of Hawaii in 1990 and graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in Soviet Studies from Harvard University in 1987. Before coming to the Monterey Institute, she taught politics courses at Grossmont College in El Cajon, California. She has also worked as an intern aiding Eastern European privatization programs while at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Her areas of expertise include Russian civilian and naval nuclear reactors, foreign nonproliferation assistance to Russia, and developments at the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, as well as HEU minimization issues worldwide.

Her recent writings include: "Nuclear Medicine's Double Hazard: Imperiled Treatment and the Risk of Terrorism," "Practical Steps Toward a World Without Civilian HEU," and "Leveraging U.S. Policy for a Global Commitment to HEU Elimination," in the July 2008 edition of the Nonproliferation Review, "Sea Fission: Russia's floating nuclear power plants," Jane's Intelligence Review (December 2007), "Nuclear Terrorism Threats and Responses" (joint National Academies/Russian Academy of Sciences project on "The Future of the Nuclear Security Environment in 2015," November 2007), and "CNS Researcher Speaks on Nuclear Terrorism at Russian Duma" (October 4, 2007).

Recent presentations include "Nuclear Security and 'Loose Nukes'" at the 7th Annual Strategic Concepts Roundtable "Arms Control in the 21st Century: Framing the Issues" (sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Advanced Systems and Concepts Office, August 2008) and "Nuclear Medicine's Double Hazard: Imperiled Treatment and the Risk of Terrorism" (briefing on her recent Nonproliferation Review article, July 2008).