The Center for Strategic and International Studies launched the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) in 2003 in order to revitalize and strengthen a community of nuclear weapons experts whose training and background increasingly emphasize multidisciplinary expertise, especially among younger generations. In support of this goal, the PONI conference series was created to provide a forum for facilitating new and innovative thinking on how to address the evolving role of nuclear weapons in international security and to gather people from across the policy and technical communities to discuss key issues. The 2012 conference series included events at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in April, Los Alamos National Laboratory in June, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in October, before concluding with a Capstone Conference at Offutt Air Force Base, home of the U.S. Strategic Command, in March. The papers included in this volume are a collection of some of the presentations delivered at the Capstone Conference. Spanning a wide range of technical and policy issues, these selected papers hope to further discussion in their respective areas, as well as contribute to the success of the greater nuclear community.

This report was produced by the CSIS Nuclear Consensus Working Group (NCWG) to assist the Obama administration in forging, during its second term, an enduring consensus about the U.S. nuclear posture. The report includes (1) seven individual statements from nuclear thinkers and practitioners across the "broad middle" of the spectrum of opinion on the role and value of U.S. nuclear weapons, the U.S. nuclear posture needed for this defined role, and a political strategy for sustaining the recommended posture; (2) a consensus statement signed by eight members of the NCWG; (3) A description of the process used by the NCWG to forge the signed statement, which includes the lessons learned from the facilitation process; and (4) A case study covering 2008-2012, which provides both a chronology of past attempts to broker consensus about the U.S. nuclear posture and the working group's assessment of the lessons learned.