May 29, 2009

Preventing Nuclear Terrorism

If, heuristically, we ask what the world would be like if an additional one or two dozen state actors possessed nuclear weapons, the answer is obvious: terrorists would have exponentially greater opportunities to steal a nuclear device or the materials with which to make one. Conversely, if the current crowd of nuclear weapons states were to make significant cuts in inventories, with the goal of zero, and pursue with greatly increased urgency international controls over explosive nuclear material, everyone on the planet would be much safer. Obviously, again, the latter course is to be preferred. To get at these critical problems I turned to Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, until this January the U.S. government's top anti-nuclear terrorism official. Rolf, a veteran CIA operator, has a solid — and subtle — understanding of what's happening and what needs to be done. It was very kind of him to talk with me, though somehow I feel less reassured that things are under control. Total runtime an hour and four minutes. Make nuclear disarmament a top priority!