Press Release
Former U.S. Senator Bob Graham, a Belfer Center alumnus, chaired the Commission
Graham Allison, director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, served on the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, which released its report today.
The congressionally appointed Commission called on the President-elect and the next Congress to immediately initiate several concrete actions, unilaterally and with the international community, to address the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction that pose the greatest peril: nuclear and biological weapons.
The commissioners are briefing Vice President-elect Biden, President Bush and congressional leaders. The Commission centered its findings on several areas where it determined the risks to the United States are increasing: the crossroads of terrorism and proliferation in the poorly governed parts of Pakistan, the prevention of biological and nuclear terrorism, and the potential erosion of international nuclear security, treaties and norms as we enter a nuclear energy renaissance.
The Commission is chaired by former Senator Bob Graham, who served as a senior fellow at the Belfer Center from 2005-2006.
“Ours remains a world at risk and our margin of safety is shrinking, not growing. The Commission believes that unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is likely that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013,” Graham said. He said the Commission reached this sobering conclusion following six months of deliberations, site visits and interviews with more than 250 government officials and nongovernmental experts in the United States and abroad.
In addition to Graham and Allison, other commissioners include: former Senator Jim Talent, the Commission’s vice chairman; Robin Cleveland, former Counselor to the President of the World Bank; Ambassador Wendy R. Sherman; Henry D. Sokolski, Executive Director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center; Stephen G. Rademaker, U.S. representative on the U.N. Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters; former U.S. Representative Timothy J. Roemer; and Rich Verma, previously Senior National Security Advisor to the Senate Majority Leader.
The WMD report also details concrete recommendations to ensure a more efficient and effective domestic policy coordination structure, oversight reform and enhanced cooperation among appropriate law-enforcement and counterterrorism communities.