APS/AAAS/CSIS Nuclear Weapons Policy Study Under Way

As the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security policy takes shape, it should include realistic scientific assessments of limitations, impact and capability. To that end, APS has joined with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to produce a report in September that will provide critical scientific perspective on the issue.  The report will cover three tracks: technical, military and international.

The dozens of study participants and track chairs include:

• Mike Cornwall (technical chair), UCLA professor in elementary particle theory; served on the Defense Science Board; consultant to the Institute for Defense Analyses and to Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories; Jason Group member; authored several works and testified to Congress on ballistic missile defense
  
  
• The Honorable Jim Leach (international chair), served 30 years in Congress and was on the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian & Pacific Affairs, and the Congressional-Executive Commission in China
  
  
• Cpl. Frank Miller (military chair), of the Cohen Group; served as special assistant to President Bush and as senior director for defense policy and arms control on the National Security Council staff; served as chair of  NATO’s nuclear policy committee
  
  
• Sidney Drell, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of theoretical physics (emeritus) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  
  
• Raymond Jeanloz, professor of earth and planetary science and of astronomy at UC Berkeley; national and international security expert
  
  
• Michael May, professor emeritus at Stanford University’s School of Engineering and a senior fellow with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford. May recently chaired the APS/AAAS study group that released a report on nuclear forensics.