Science, Technology, and Public Policy

The author analyzes the policy implications of the U.S. January 2019 Missile Defense Review.

"Many in South Korea have already reached their own conclusion — the Cheonan incident is a stark reminder that North Korea remains a clear and present danger. A growing South Korean view is that more than a decade of nuclear drama, food shortages, starvation, borderline economic collapse, and currency reform debacles, followed by bailouts from progressive South Korean governments and the Communist Party of China has made the international community complacent about the direct military threat that North Korea poses. The Cheonan is a wake-up call."

"...[E]xtremist elements in Pakistan have a clear incentive to precipitate a crisis between India and Pakistan, so that Pakistan's nuclear assets become more exposed and vulnerable to theft. Terrorist organizations in the region with nuclear ambitions, such as al-Qaida, may find no easier route to obtaining fissile material or a fully functional nuclear weapon than to attack India, thereby triggering a crisis between India and Pakistan and forcing Pakistan to ready and disperse nuclear assets—with few, if any, negative controls—and then attempting to steal the nuclear material when it is being moved or in the field, where it is less secure than in peacetime locations."

Testimony of Calestous Juma before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Hearing on Food Security in Africa: The Impact of Agricultural Development

Testimony given by Matthew Bunn for the Subcommitte on National Security, Committee of Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives. Hearing on Preventing Nuclear Terrorism, September 24, 2002.