Sahil V. Shah is a Senior Fellow for Nuclear Policy and the Head of the Andrew Carnegie AI-Nuclear Policy Accelerator at the Institute for Security and Technology (IST). He is also a Senior Policy Advisor on Nuclear Risk Reduction to the Swiss Delegation to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), a role he has held since the 2022 Review Conference. In this capacity, he advises Switzerland and a group of states on efforts to elevate the prevention of nuclear conflict through actionable risk reduction tools.
Previously, Sahil was a Senior Fellow and Program Manager at the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) Janne E. Nolan Center on Strategic Weapons, and a Policy Fellow and Senior Iran Policy Advisor at the European Leadership Network (ELN). Across these roles, he has advised senior government officials and convened international dialogues on arms control, deterrence, and wider nuclear policy issues. Sahil has also twice served as a Policy and Outreach Consultant to Executive Secretaries of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.
He has also played a leading role in developing the next generation of nuclear policy practitioners, including through co-leading the Stanford US-Russia Forum and launching initiatives such as the CTBTO Youth Group, the CSR Nuclear Risk Reduction Fellowship, and the aforementioned Andrew Carnegie AI–Nuclear Policy Accelerator. Sahil was a recipient of the 2021 Gorbachev–Shultz Legacy Award and has been recognised as an Aspen Strategy Group Rising Leader. He has served as a UK delegate to both the P5 Young Professionals Network and the Expert-Level Track on strategic affairs, and regularly participates in high-level Track 2 dialogues, namely with Chinese and Russian counterparts.
His writing has appeared in outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, POLITICO, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs, and he frequently provides expert commentary on nuclear issues across international media. He began his career working with former U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry and former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, whose vision and steps agenda for multilateral nuclear disarmament continues to shape his work.
