Draft:Ankit-Panda
 | Review waiting, please be patient.
This may take 3 months or more, since drafts are reviewed in no specific order. There are 4,914 pending submissions waiting for review.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Reviewer tools
|
 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (June 2026) |
Ankit Panda | |
|---|---|
| Education | Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) |
| Occupations | Policy analyst, author |
| Employer | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |
| Known for | Analysis of nuclear weapons, deterrence, and North Korea's nuclear program |
| Notable work | Kim Jong Un and the Bomb (2020); The New Nuclear Age (2025) |
Ankit Panda is an American analyst and author specializing in nuclear strategy, deterrence, arms control, and international security. He is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.[1] He is the author of Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea (2020) and The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon (2025), and was previously a journalist who reported a series of disclosures on the strategic weapons programs of North Korea, China, Russia, and India.
Early life and education
[edit]Panda is a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.[1][2]
Career
[edit]Before joining Carnegie, Panda worked as a journalist and editor covering international security, and was an adjunct senior fellow in the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), as well as a member of the 2019 FAS International Study Group on North Korea Policy.[3] He has consulted for the United Nations in New York and Geneva on nonproliferation and disarmament matters.[1]
Panda is editor-at-large at The Diplomat, where he hosts the Asia Geopolitics podcast, and a contributing editor at War on the Rocks, where he hosts Thinking the Unthinkable With Ankit Panda, a podcast on nuclear matters.[1] His commentary and analysis have appeared in or been featured by The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Economist, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, among other outlets.[1]
He has testified on security topics related to South Korea and Japan before the congressionally chartered U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.[4] In June 2021, he testified before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces on missile defense policy, arguing that expansive homeland missile defense can undermine strategic stability and increase the risk of nuclear escalation.[5]
Reporting on strategic weapons
[edit]In July 2018, while a journalist at The Diplomat, Panda broke the story of a covert uranium enrichment facility near Kangson (Chollima), outside Pyongyang. Working in concert with a team of open-source researchers at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies led by Jeffrey Lewis, Panda confirmed with U.S. intelligence sources that the site—located using commercial satellite imagery—corresponded to a facility that had been monitored by the U.S. intelligence community for more than a decade.[6] In a review of his book, the journal Pacific Affairs noted that Panda had documented North Korea's technological progress in real time and "published scoops" on the alleged enrichment site at Kangson.[7]
Over his journalism career, Panda reported a number of exclusives on strategic weapons developments. These included the first reports of North Korea's April 2017 tests of the Pukguksong-2 intermediate-range ballistic missile and of continued North Korean ballistic-missile launcher production, the December 2017 disclosure of China's DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle test, reporting on a Russian experimental ICBM reentry vehicle and a 2019 test of the 9M730 Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, and a February 2019 Indian anti-satellite weapon test.[8][9][10][11][12][13]
Panda is described by Carnegie as among the most highly cited experts on North Korean nuclear capabilities, and is regularly quoted by major news organizations on developments in North Korea's nuclear program.[1][14] In July 2022, he attended the first U.S. Strategic Command deterrence symposium focused on North Korea, and discussed the implications of North Korea's nuclear program with The Wall Street Journal.[15]
Commentary
[edit]In October 2022, amid heightened concern over Russia's war in Ukraine, The New Yorker published an extended interview with Panda on the prospect that Vladimir Putin might use a nuclear weapon in the conflict. Panda argued that so-called tactical nuclear weapons were unlikely to deliver a decisive battlefield advantage against dispersed Ukrainian forces, and that any nuclear use would be a "world-altering" event whose effects would be difficult to predict; he assessed that a U.S. nuclear response was implausible given that Ukraine is not a treaty ally.[16]
Russian sanctions
[edit]In May 2023, Panda was one of 500 U.S. citizens permanently barred from entering Russia under sanctions announced by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to U.S. measures over the war in Ukraine. The list also included former U.S. President Barack Obama.[17]
Books
[edit]Kim Jong Un and the Bomb (2020)
[edit]Panda's first book, Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2020), traces the development of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and the strategic logic behind them.[18] Kirkus Reviews called it "an unflinching examination of North Korea's emergence as a nuclear power and its implications for the rest of the world."[18] Writing in Pacific Affairs, Adam Cathcart of the University of Leeds described it as an engaging and comprehensive account of North Korea's capabilities that represented an important update to the literature.[7] Bianca Trifoi, reviewing the book for H-Net, called it a strong contribution to understanding both the role of nuclear weapons in the contemporary international system and North Korea's own capabilities and goals,[19] while Choice described it as a well-researched and thought-provoking work recommended for students.[20] The book was also reviewed in Foreign Affairs and noticed in The New York Times.[21]
The New Nuclear Age (2025)
[edit]Panda's second book, The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon (Polity, 2025), argues that deteriorating relations among the United States, Russia, and China, the decline of arms control, and emerging technologies have produced a more dangerous and unpredictable nuclear era.[22] Kirkus Reviews described it as "a cogent, careful look at a crucial challenge."[22] Reviewing the book in Ethics & International Affairs, published by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, the political scientist Mark S. Bell called it "the most comprehensive and accessible overview of the 'new nuclear age'" and "essential reading," while questioning how sharply the new era departs from earlier ones.[23]
Panda is also the author of the monograph Indo-Pacific Missile Arsenals: Avoiding Spirals and Mitigating Risks (Carnegie, 2023) and co-editor of New Approaches to Verifying and Monitoring North Korea's Nuclear Arsenal (Carnegie, 2021).[1]
Selected works
[edit]- The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon. Polity, 2025. ISBN 978-1-5095-5746-2
- Indo-Pacific Missile Arsenals: Avoiding Spirals and Mitigating Risks. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2023.
- New Approaches to Verifying and Monitoring North Korea's Nuclear Arsenal (co-editor). Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2021.
- Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea. Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0-19-006036-7
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g "Ankit Panda". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "Ankit Panda — Biography" (PDF). U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "Interview – Ankit Panda". E-International Relations. December 18, 2025. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ Panda, Ankit (June 9, 2021). "Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces" (PDF). U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ Gudbergsdottir, Eva (July 19, 2018). "Institute Team Locates Site of Covert North Korean Uranium Enrichment". Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ a b Cathcart, Adam (2022). "Review of Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea". Pacific Affairs. University of British Columbia. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "Exclusive: North Korea Tested Its New Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile 3 Times in April 2017". The Diplomat. June 2017. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "Exclusive: North Korea Has Continued Ballistic Missile Launcher Production, Per US Intelligence". The Diplomat. July 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "Introducing the DF-17: China's Newly Tested Ballistic Missile Armed With a Hypersonic Glide Vehicle". The Diplomat. December 2017. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "Revealed: Russia's New Experimental ICBM Warheads". The Diplomat. October 2017. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "Russia Conducts Test of Nuclear-Powered Cruise Missile". The Diplomat. February 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "Exclusive: India Conducted a Failed Anti-Satellite Test in February 2019". The Diplomat. April 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "North Korea unveils a new plant to produce fuel for nuclear weapons". NPR. June 4, 2026. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "U.S. Confronts Uncomfortable Reality About North Korea's Nuclear Program". The Wall Street Journal. July 2022. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ Chotiner, Isaac (October 2022). "How Close Is Vladimir Putin to Using a Nuclear Bomb?". The New Yorker. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ "Foreign Ministry statement on new personal sanctions on US citizens". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. May 19, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ a b "Kim Jong Un and the Bomb". Kirkus Reviews. April 6, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ Trifoi, Bianca (July 2022). "Review of Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea". H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ Pang, E. (2020). "Review of Kim Jong Un and the Bomb". Choice. 58 (4). American Library Association.
- ^ "Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea". Foreign Affairs. August 11, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ a b "The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon". Kirkus Reviews. February 15, 2025. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- ^ Bell, Mark S. (Winter 2025). "Review of The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon". Ethics & International Affairs. 39 (4). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
Category:Living people Category:American writers Category:Princeton University alumni Category:American people of Indian descent