Graham Allison

September 2006

Advancing Against Nuclear Terrorism

Journal Article, IAEA Bulletin, issue 1, volume 48

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

In this IAEA Bulletin Viewpoint, "Advancing Against Nuclear Terrorism," Graham Allison discusses the significant steps taken by Presidents Bush and Putin at the St. Petersburg G-8 summit in July 2006 to address the threat of nuclear terrorism.

Summer 2005

Is Nuclear Terrorism a Threat to Canada's National Security?

Journal Article, International Journal, issue 3, volume 60

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

In the first nationally televised debate between President George Bush and Senator John Kerry in September 2004, the moderator asked each candidate “What is the single most serious threat to American national security?” In rare agreement, Kerry and Bush both answered “nuclear terrorism.” As the president said: “I agree with my opponent that the biggest threat facing the country is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist network.”

September/October 2004

Nuclear Terrorism: How Serious a Threat to Russia?

Journal Article, Russia in Global Affairs, http://www.globalaffairs.ru/articles/0/3069.html. Originally published in Russian language only.

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

A careful reader of the discussion in the Russian and American national security community could conclude that Americans are more concerned about the threat of a nuclear terrorist attack than are Russians. Specifically, American experts have described more vividly potential nuclear terrorist attacks on U.S. soil than have Russians, at least in the writings and conversations that are publicly accessible. Why this is the case is a puzzle. No one doubts that in Chechen fighters Russia faces serious, capable, determined adversaries. Moreover, if Chechnya succeeded in capturing, stealing, or buying a nuclear weapon (or material from which they could make a nuclear weapon), their first target would surely be Moscow, not New York or Washington DC.

June 27, 2004

Policies on Nukes Reveal Wide Gulf

Journal Article, Miami Herald

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

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.'

January/February 2004

How to Stop Nuclear Terror

Journal Article, Foreign Affairs, issue no. 1, volume vol. 83

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

President Bush has called nuclear terror the defining threat the United States now faces. He's right, but he has yet to follow up his words with actions. This is especially frustrating since nuclear terror is preventable. Washington needs a strategy based on the "Three No's": no loose nukes, no nascent nukes, and no new nuclear states.

Winter/Spring 1997

The Number One Threat of Nuclear Proliferation Today: Loose Nukes from Russia

Journal Article, Brown Journal of World Affairs, issue no. 1, volume vol. 4

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

This issue focuses on the threat of nuclearization of the Third World through nuclear proliferation, loose nukes from Russia

1997

Before The Morning After

Journal Article, Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law, issue no. 1, volume vol. 8

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

Symposium: Contempory Issues in Controlling Weapons of Mass Destruction

If the Cold War is over and our nuclear nemesis has "retargeted" its nuclear weapons, why does a nuclear threat still hang over us? The answer is that the demise of the Soviet Union left behind an arsenal of thirty thousand nuclear warheads and seventy thousand nuclear weapons-equivalents 3/4 lumps of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium. These items are now located in a society convulsed by a revolution whose central control systems cannot even collect taxes. Russian society has become increasingly free, increasingly chaotic, and increasingly criminalized.

November 8, 1996

Get Ready for the Clinton Doctrine

Journal Article, New Statesman, issue no.428, volume vol. 9

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

Focusing on Clinton's foreign policy for the 1990s.

Spring 1992

Can The U.S. Promote Democracy?

Journal Article, Political Science Quarterly, issue Spring 1992, volume 107

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

Is it possible for the U.S. to promote democracy and pluralism?? The democratic revolutions of 1989, coupled with the retreat of authoritarian regimes in Latin America and part of Asia and Africa, have prompted a resurgence of interest throughout the U.S. government and society at large in promoting democracy.

Spring 1992

Aid to Russia: Uses of History

Journal Article, Harvard Journal of World Affairs

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

A look at the United States history of aid to countries, and using those models of aid focusing on Russia.