Graham Allison

July 3, 2005

Nuclear Good News

Op-Ed, Boston Globe

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

ON THE SIDELINE of this week's G8 Summit at Gleneagles, US President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet one on one. Atop their agenda will be commitments they made four months ago in Bratislava to address an issue even more important to the well-being of Russian and American citizens than African aid and climate change, the issues that will headline the G8.

AP Images

July, 2005

Nuclear Accountability

Magazine or Newspaper Article, Technology Review, An MIT Enterprise

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

Scenario one: If North Korea fired a nuclear-armed missile that devastated an American city, how would the U.S. government respond? The state-sponsored attack would fit within the Cold War paradigm; therefore, the certain American response would be an overwhelming retaliation aimed at destroying Pyongyang, Kim Jong Il's nuclear and missile programs, and North Korea's million-man army. Such a response would result in enormous collateral damage, killing millions of North Koreans. Despite reservations about the morality of such a response, those who established the Cold War nuclear doctrine recognized -- and accepted -- the unintended deaths of millions of innocents. Whoever occupied the White House during such a nuclear attack would understand this also.

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.”

June 9. 2005

Die Mullahs mit einem Moratorium Locken: Zum Atomkonflikt mit Iran ( ?Lock the Mullahs up with a Moratorium? Regarding the Atomic Conflict with Iran)

Op-Ed, Die Zeit

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

International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohammed ElBaradei has called for a “five-year moratorium” on all new uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing capabilities. His proposal should become a rallying point for everyone committed to preserving the non-proliferation regime. Though rejected initially by both Iran and the United States, this proposal should be resurrected by Germany and others.

May 25, 2005

Der Atomterror Trifft auch die Deutschen (A German Role in Preventing Nuclear Terrorism)

Op-Ed, S?ddeutsche Zeitung

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

>The unspoken hope of many Germans is that their country can keep its head down and thereby escape the attention of Al Qaeda and its associates. Recent attacks by Islamic jihadi terrorists within Europe show why this strategy is destined to fail.

Spring 2005

Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe

Magazine or Newspaper Article, John F. Kennedy School of Government Bulletin, Harvard University

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

In NUCLEAR TERRORISM: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe (Times Books / an imprint of Henry Holt August 9, 2004), Graham Allison, founding dean of Harvard’s modern John F. Kennedy School of Government, a former top Pentagon official, and one of America’s leading scholars of nuclear strategy and national security, gives us an urgent call to action. He makes the case that nuclear terrorism is inevitable—if we continue on our present course—and he sets out an ambitious but achievable plan for preventing a catastrophic attack before it’s too late.

March 2, 2005

Tackling a Common Threat

Op-Ed, Baltimore Sun

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

PRESIDENT BUSH and his new national security team must be applauded for the progress made at the summit with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.

February 21, 2005

The Gravest Danger

Magazine or Newspaper Article, The American Prospect, issue 3, volume 16

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

The president who invaded Iraq citing fear of nuclear blackmail has been cavalier about preventing it elsewhere.

When asked in the first presidential debate of 2004 what constitutes the “single most serious threat to American national security,” there was a brief instant of agreement between President Bush and Senator Kerry. Both answered, “Nuclear terrorism.” The president repeated that he agreed with his opponent that the biggest threat facing the country is nuclear weapons “in the hands of a terrorist enemy.”

February 17, 2005

The Specter of Nuclear Proliferation

Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times

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

>If North Korea has, in fact, assembled an arsenal of six or eight nuclear weapons, so what?

October 2004

Tick, Tick, Tick...

Magazine or Newspaper Article, The Atlantic

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

Not since the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 have I been as frightened by a single news story as I was by the revelation late last year that Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program, had been selling nuclear technology and services on the black market.