Harvard's Allison, Holdren, and Bunn Applaud El Baradei Selection for Nobel Prize

Press Release

October 7, 2005

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: International Security; Science, Technology, and Public Policy; Managing the Atom

Harvard’s Allison, Holdren, and Bunn Applaud

El Baradei Selection for Nobel Prize

Harvard’s Allison, Holdren, and Bunn Applaud El Baradei Selection for Nobel Prize

Cambridge, Mass.—In response to the selection of Mohamed El Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Nobel Peace Prize, experts at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, offer their thoughts:

"The selection of Mr. El Baradei and the IAEA is much deserved. Mr. El Baradei has spoken truth to power about the complex challenges of nuclear proliferation—even when many in government chose not to listen. Awarding the Nobel Prize reminds the world of the importance and urgency of the IAEA. In this effort, El Baradei’s contributions have been original and legendary. What he and the IAEA do every day helps prevent terrorists in their ambition to explode a nuclear bomb in an American city."

—Graham Allison, is director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and former dean at Harvard’s Kennedy School of government. He is the author of Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe.

"The Nobel Committee's choice of the IAEA and its Secretary-General, Mohamed El Baradei, for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize underlines the continuing dangers to world peace that emanate from nuclear weapons, as well as the crucial importance of international approaches and institutions for reducing those dangers. The IAEA institutionally and Mr. El Baradei personally have been in the front lines of the battle to prevent further nuclear-weapons proliferation and reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism. I hope that the boost given to their visibility and prestige by the award of the Peace Prize will add to the effectiveness of their continuing efforts in this crucial struggle."

—John P. Holdren is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director of the Belfer Center’s Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also director of the Woods Hole Research Center, served as co-chair of the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy, and is President Elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"This award highlights the need to strengthen the agency’s ability to deal with the urgent nuclear weapons challenges facing the world. It is time for governments to give the IAEA the money, the personnel, the intelligence, and the authority it needs to control the spread of nuclear weapons and prevent nuclear terrorism. In particular, the IAEA’s safeguards inspections and their efforts to keep nuclear stockpiles around the world out of terrorist hands could be greatly strengthened with budget increases—tiny by comparison to what states routinely spend on national security."

— Matthew Bunn is the acting executive director of the  Managing the Atom Project at the Belfer Center. He is the co-author of Securing the Bomb 2005: The New Global Imperatives.

For more information about this publication please contact the Belfer Center Communications Office at 617-495-9858.

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