Making the Nation Safer: The Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism

This discussion is derived from the study by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine of how science and technology might assist in countering catastrophic terrorism. This study was initiated by the presidents of the three branches of the Academy shortly after initial discussion with a large group of experts on September 25, 2001. . The project was carried out by a committee of 24, with Lewis Branscomb and Richard Klausner as cochairs. The committee was supported by a set of more specialized expert working groups, numbering 119. The work of the committee and its panels was then subjected to 46 independent expert reviewers. To avoid any delay in the project, the work was entirely financed out of the Academies’ own funds. The resulting 400-page report was presented to the Congress, White House, and public on June 25, 2002. It was released in book form by the National Academies Press on August 2, 2002. The discussion below, now one and one-half years after the event that triggered the need for the study, includes a number of extensions of material and ideas in the original report. For these the author takes personal responsibility.