Rolf Mowatt-Larssen
Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: 617-496-6131
Email: rolf_mowatt-larssen@hks.harvard.edu
March/April 2010
"Proliferation and Terrorism: Big Hype or Biggest Threat?"
Journal Article, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, issue 2, volume 66
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Where are the sources of greatest threat today? Where is nuclear catastrophe most likely to occur over the next decade? If we are able to anticipate the breaking news of a nuclear security meltdown, it stands to reason we might be able to prevent it from becoming tomorrow's news.
AP Photo
April 12, 2010
"A Call for German Leadership in Combating Nuclear Terrorism"
Op-Ed
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Tom Bielefeld, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
"...Germany has an opportunity at the Washington summit — and thereafter — to step up and lend non-American leadership to the problem. Recognizing that in many of the world's capitals the threat of nuclear terrorism is not yet being taken seriously, and when in some of them the very notion is even considered an American pretext for an entirely different, potentially hostile political agenda, non-American leadership is most urgently needed."
January 2010
Al Qaeda Weapons of Mass Destruction Threat: Hype or Reality?
Paper
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Several terrorist groups have actively sought weapons of mass destruction (WMD) of one kind or another. To date, however, al Qaeda is the only group known to be pursuing a long-term, persistent and systematic approach to developing weapons to be used in mass casualty attacks. There are many plausible explanations for why the world has not experienced an al Qaeda attack using chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons, but it would be foolish to discount the possibility that such an event will occur in the future.
AP Images
December 7, 2009
"The Winds of War"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"A troop surge in Afghanistan and strategic partnership with Pakistan may be important, but they are not enough. It would be a pyrrhic victory to deny terrorists sanctuary in Afghanistan and Pakistan, only to discover that al Qaeda and associates have moved operational capability and built terrorist cells in new sanctuaries in order to launch strikes across the globe."
AP Image
October 9, 2009
"Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: Evolving Forms of the Nuclear Genie"
Presentation
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Rolf Mowatt-Larssen traces nuclear terrorism in the 21st century beginning with theory and practice, analyzing the implications of 9/11 and weighs in on the reconstruction of the global nuclear order.
AP Image
August 7, 2009
"The Armageddon Test"
Discussion Paper
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
How much nuclear material has leaked, and is it in the hands of terrorists, in storage somewhere, or still in circulation? No one knows for sure, but the task of cleaning up the nuclear black market amounts to an Armageddon test for global intelligence. The standard for success is unforgiving: all nuclear material must be recovered before it finds its way into an improvised nuclear device.
AP Photo
April 30, 2009
Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: A Global Intelligence Imperative
Report
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"The biggest obstacle to multilateral intelligence cooperation is leadership and finding the courage to work together. Group think and risk aversion must be overcome in the name of urgency."
December 2, 2008
Rolf Mowatt-Larssen Named Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center
Press Release
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications and Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, director of the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy and former head of the Central Intelligence Agency's WMD and terrorism efforts, will join the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center as a senior fellow on January 19, 2009.
June 6, 2011
The U.S.-Russia Joint Threat Assessment of Nuclear Terrorism
Report
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom, Yuri Morozov, Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Viktor I. Yesin and Pavel S. Zolotarev
Researchers from the United States and Russia have issued a joint assessment of the global threat of nuclear terrorism, warning of a persistent danger that terrorists could obtain or make a nuclear device and use it with catastrophic consequences. The first joint threat assessment by experts from the world’s two major nuclear powers concludes: “If current approaches toward eliminating the threat are not replaced with a sense of urgency and resolve, the question will become not if but when, and on what scale, the first act of nuclear terrorism occurs.”
AP Photo
April 12, 2010
"A Call for German Leadership in Combating Nuclear Terrorism"
Op-Ed
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Tom Bielefeld, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
"...Germany has an opportunity at the Washington summit — and thereafter — to step up and lend non-American leadership to the problem. Recognizing that in many of the world's capitals the threat of nuclear terrorism is not yet being taken seriously, and when in some of them the very notion is even considered an American pretext for an entirely different, potentially hostile political agenda, non-American leadership is most urgently needed."
