Nuclear Issues

"The conventional wisdom among those who looked at the Middle East used to be that you had a choice either of supporting the autocrat or being stuck with the religious extremists. The extraordinary diffusion of information created in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries reveals a strong middle that we weren't fully aware of. What is more, new technologies allow this new middle to coordinate in ways unseen before Twitter, Facebook, and so forth, and this could lead to a very different politics of the Middle East. This introduces a new complexity to our government's dealings with the region."

Failure to develop a comprehensive contingency plan, such as the one proposed here, and inform the American public, where appropriate, about its particulars will only serve to amplify the devastating impact of any nuclear attack on a U.S. city

Dr. Elizabeth D. Sherwood-Randall's article in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.

Article in The Nonproliferation Review

"Chinese officials have expressed a growing concern that U.S. space and missile defense plans will stimulate a costly and destabilizing arms race...."

"...how can the United States maximize the benefits that primacy brings and minimize the resistance that its power sometimes provokes?"

"China is concerned about U.S. missile defense and "space control"plans, which would lead to weaponization of outer space and stimulate a costly and destabilizing arms race. China is further concerned that the US missile defense program, as currently advertised, would neutralize China's strategic nuclear deterrent...."

Recently, the Senate voted in support of the Bush administration's request for funds to explore new nuclear 'bunker-buster' technology. In his major national security address in June, John Kerry specifically criticized this drive to expand our nuclear arsenal. This is but one of many significant differences between the two candidates on what Kerry called 'the greatest threat we face in the world today -- a terrorist armed with nuclear weapons.'

Contrary to those who argue that economic globalization increases vulnerability to a bioterrorist threat—and for this reason should be restricted—Hoyt and Brooks contend that globalization is a “double-edged sword” that has the potential to increase but also decrease levels of vulnerability—for example, by facilitating the development of vaccines.