Martin B. Malin, Nuclear Policy Community-builder Par Excellence

Martin B. Malin, who passed away April 19 from cancer, was both a serious scholar of nuclear policy and one of the field's great community-builders. His warm, insightful mentorship inspired a generation of nuclear scholars.

Marty—as he was known to all—grew up in San Diego, California, and went to college at the University of California at Santa Cruz (chosen, in substantial part, for the surfing). He received his master's and PhD in political science from Columbia University, specializing in the Middle East, in which he retained a lifelong interest. At Columbia, he was editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Affairs. In New York, he met his wife Hilary, and they started their family.

They moved to the Boston area so Marty could take over directing the Program on Science and Global Security (including the long-standing and prominent Committee on International Security Studies) at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Marty became the indispensable lieutenant to the committee's co-chairs, Carl Kaysen and John Steinbruner, and throughout his time at the American Academy was the key person in implementing the committee's projects and shepherding its often influential products. While at the American Academy, he co-authored the pathbreaking War with Iraq—Costs, Consequences and Alternatives, and co-edited the American Academy Studies in Global Security book series (MIT Press)….