"On the second anniversary of the Japan triple disaster, which had tragically claimed thousands of lives, CTBTO Faces is featuring an interview with Wendy Watson-Wright, head of one of the international organizations which the CTBTO is collaborating with in the field of tsunami warning.

Watson-Wright is Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IOC-UNESCO). Prior to that, Watson-Wright held a number of senior positions within the Public Service of Canada, including as Assistant Deputy Minister for Science, Fisheries and Oceans from 2001 to 2009. --- In this interview, Watson-Wright highlights the value and reliability of CTBTO's infrastructure and data for tsunami warning. She also talks about the role of science, development and disaster mitigation in promoting international peace and cooperation and the increasing role of women in science."

"In an interview with Thomas Schelling, the CTBTO Faces interview series presents one of the most influential thinkers of nuclear weapons strategy, nuclear deterrence and game theory during the Cold War. Schelling, aged 92, is a U.S. economist and professor of foreign affairs, national security, nuclear strategy and arms control at the University of Maryland, United States. From 1948 to 1953, Schelling served with the Marshall Plan in Europe, then the White House, and the Executive Office of the President. Later Schelling joined the Department of Economics at Yale University before being appointed Professor of Economics at Harvard and then at Maryland. In 1993, Schelling received the Award for Behavior Research Relevant to the Prevention of Nuclear War from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Schelling also received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2005 for his research on game theory.

Schelling was interviewed by CTBTO Spokesperson Annika Thunborg in Vienna in November 2012. An advocate of nuclear deterrence, Schelling explains how nuclear weapons policies developed in the first decades of the Cold War. He shares his impressions of the impact of nuclear bombings at the end of World War II and how memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki played a role during the Korean War. He also stresses the importance of game theory when promoting cooperation in disarmament."

"The latest CTBTO Faces interview is with Roald Sagdeev, Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, United States. Back in the Soviet Union, Sagdeev served as scientific advisor to President Mikhail Gorbachev on issues related to civil and military applications of outer space. Sagdeev, a graduate of the Moscow State University, was director of the Space Research Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences as well as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He received the Carl Sagan Memorial Award in 2003.

Sagdeev was interviewed on the margins of the ""Reykjavik"" event hosted by the CTBTO in New York on 27 September 2012. He shares his first-hand insights into U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations, including the tensions surrounding the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the U.S. ""Star Wars"" programme, and how Gorbachev and his American counterpart, Ronald Reagan, came close to reaching an agreement on abolishing all nuclear weapons during the 1986 Reykjavik Summit."

"This week, CTBTO Faces features an interview with Morton H. Halperin, an American expert on foreign policy and civil liberties. Halperin served under the Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton administrations as an advisor on military affairs and arms control and worked with a number of think tanks and universities. Halperin was instrumental in the negotiations of several arms control treaties including the SALT and the START treaties. He is currently Senior Advisor at the New York-based Open Society Foundations (founded by George Soros).

Halperin was interviewed on the margins of the ""Reykjavik"" event hosted by the CTBTO on 27 September 2012 in New York. In his interview, Halperin explains how the 1986 Reykjavik Summit marked a paradigm change for nuclear disarmament. He advocates for the strengthening of the norm against the use of nuclear weapons, leading to these weapons becoming completely obsolete for any country's perception of security or status. He also calls upon policy makers to press forward with concrete measures such as CTBT ratification, reducing the alert status of nuclear systems, warhead reduction, and negotiating a treaty cutting off the production of fissionable material."

The newest CTBTO Faces interview is with Robert E. Frye, Emmy award winning producer and director of documentaries and network news programmes for over four decades. Frye was interviewed by CTBTO Spokesperson Annika Thunborg in Vienna in May 2012, when his documentary "In My Lifetime" was screened at the United Nations in Vienna. The film tells the story of the long struggle to fight the dangers posed by nuclear weapons: http://thenuclearworld.org/2011/02/20/robert-e-frye-2/ In his interview, Frye explains how his motivation to join this fight is rooted in his experience as U.S. soldier in West Germany at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s. He stresses the necessity to educate especially the younger generations and the need to remain both passionate and optimistic about the aim of nuclear abolition.

"Richard Rhodes is an American author and historian who has devoted over three decades to research and writing about the dawn of the nuclear weapons age. His Pulitzer Prize-winning book, 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' (1986), has sold over one million copies. Rhodes has also authored the play 'Reykjavik', which re-enacts the famous 1986 summit where Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan came close to abolishing all nuclear weapons.

In this interview, given on the occasion of the staged reading of the Reykjavik play in September 2012 in New York, Rhodes explains how the 1986 summit had a fundamental impact on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation issues and talks about the necessity for today's leaders of moving these issues forward. He also describes the surprising discrepancies between the U.S. and Soviet notes from the summit that he discovered in the process of writing the play."

"Throughout his long career, Ambassador Linton Brooks has dealt with and influenced nuclear weapon issues like few others. From 2002 to 2007, Brooks served as administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), where he oversaw the U.S. nuclear weapons programme and the Department of Energy's international non-proliferation programmes. Prior to that, Brooks held senior positions in the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, where he was the chief U.S. negotiator for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (START) signed in 1991 and 1993. He also looks back on three decades of career as a naval officer, which included the command of a nuclear-armed submarine. He currently works as senior adviser on national security issues for the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

In his interview — the most in-depth one of the entire Faces series — Brooks recalls his first encounter with nuclear confrontation as young U.S. Navy officer on one of the vessels charged with enforcing the quarantine during the Cuban Missile Crisis. As a co-author of the 2012 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Report on the CTBT, Brooks advocates arms control verification complemented by the latest technological possibilities. He also gives his outlook on the chances for CTBT ratification by the U.S. Senate and shares his view on the Stockpile Stewardship Programme which he oversaw, explaining why technological advances and scientific understanding render the need for nuclear testing obsolete. Analysing the contemporary relationship of the United States with Russia and the impact of China's increasing influence, Brooks lays out his view of the future of nuclear arms control."

"Throughout her career, Christine Wing worked with the National Disarmament Program at the American Friends Service Committee, the International Peace and Security at the Ford Foundation in New York, the Nuclear Threat Initiative and at Princeton University's Center of International Studies.

In her interview, Wing remembers how the widespread fear of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War motivated her to work in the field of nuclear disarmament, explaining how the demise of the Soviet Union posed new challenges for nuclear disarmament activism. Wing argues that engaging civil society can make a difference in advancing disarmament issues such as the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. In 2011, Wing wrote an article for CTBTO Spectrum titled ""Why wait? States will cede power by waiting for others to ratify the CTBT first."

"This CTBTO Faces interview is with Ana Teresa Dengo, Costa Rican Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Vienna since 2006. In this function, she chaired the CTBTO's main Member States' body in 2007 and 2012. Before, Dengo worked at the CTBTO from 1998 to 2006.

In her interview, she explains her country's tradition in promoting disarmament and the merits of regional treaties such as the Tlatelolco Treaty, which bans nuclear weapons from Latin America. Dengo identifies the need for innovative diplomacy to overcome the current challenges facing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty. She also advocates a stronger participation of women in arms control and related sciences."

"Zia Mian is a physicist, nuclear expert and disarmament activist. Born in Pakistan, educated in the United Kingdom and working in the United States since 1996, Mian brings international breadth to his work and support for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Mian is a leading authority on issues of peace and security in South Asia and has produced several books and two documentary films on the subject. He is a Deputy Chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) and Co-Editor of Science & Global Security, the international journal of technical analysis for arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation policy.While in Vienna to attend the May 2012 Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, Mian gave an in-depth interview to CTBTO Faces."