To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
The topic of discussion will be the danger of nuclear terrorism, including such questions as: How serious is the danger that al Qaeda or other groups may acquire a nuclear weapon? What about the threat of a radiological weapon? What is being done about these risks, and what remains to be done?
Tom Bielefeld, a joint International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom research fellow and physicist by training, will lead the discussion.
A number of readings are available for this session, and discussion group participants are encouraged to read one or more ahead of time:
Matthew Bunn and Anthony Wier, "The Seven Myths of Nuclear Terrorism," Current History, April 2005.
Matthew Bunn, "Preventing a Nuclear 9/11," (.pdf) Issuesin Science and Technology, Winter 2005.
The debate between Allison and Arkin, "Nuclear 9/11?" (.pdf) Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September/October 2006.
Michael A. Levi and Henry C. Kelly, "Weapons of Mass Disruption," (.pdf) Scientific American, November 2002.
Charles D. Ferguson, "Reducing the Threat of RDDs," (.pdf) IAEA Bulletin, 45/1, June 2003.
Steve Coll, "The Unthinkable," The New Yorker, March 12, 2007
Please also note the very informative online tutorial provided by the Nuclear Threat Initiative: http://www.nti.org/h_learnmore/nuctutorial/index.html
Contact Erica Chenoweth or Erik Dahl with any questions.
Please join us!