PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
From its origins, the Federation of American Scientists has worked both to advance technologies that its members felt could meet critical public goals — in 1945 they worked to promote research of civilian nuclear power — and to block dangers created by scientific advances that scientists were in a unique position to understand. In 1945, the challenge was proliferation of the technology of atomic weaponry. Our anniversary forced us both to reflect on the successes and failures of our organization’s work over the course of 60years and assess how our community can be most useful in the future.
It’s painful that the dangers of nuclear proliferation continue to increase in spite of the recent alarms raised by the FAS founders in 1945. Nuclear weapons tested by India and Pakistan, the unknown extent of the damage done by A.Q. Khan’s bake sale on nuclear secrets, a hidden North Korean program for enriching uranium and separating plutonium, and the potential for large-scale enrichment in Iran point to a dangerous future. And there is increasing likelihood that the number of nuclear power plants will greatly expand in the coming decades with an accompanying increase in uranium enrichment facilities.
The only possible mechanism for reducing these dangers is skillful and aggressive diplomacy and a clear signal that the U.S. is willing to consider dramatic changes in its own nuclear posture. In fact, negotiations are dangerously stalled in no small part because of U.S. contempt for international institutions. Efforts to persuade non-nuclear nations to show forbearance are undercut by the U.S. pursuit of new nuclear weapons for its own uses. In his speech accepting this year’s Hans Bethe award, reprinted in this issue, Steve Fetter makes convincing case that only a clear U.S. offer to eliminate its nuclear arsenal would be dramatic enough to break this disastrous impasse.
While the threat of nuclear proliferation will obviously remain a major part of FAS’ work in the coming decade, we’ve expanded our work over the years to cover new areas of concern. The U.S., and the world, are beginning to realize that the war on infectious diseases is far from won, and a major worldwide outbreak of flu or other epidemic could be catastrophic. This risk, coupled with concern about malicious development of biological agents, is the focus of a major new FAS program. Steve Aftergood continues his relentless pursuit of openness in government — a pursuit made increasingly important by the torrent of new Bush administration programs designed to protect government information from public scrutiny. Matt Schroeder forcefully reminds us that most people killed by terrorists and rogue combatants are killed by conventional weapons. His work to curtail illicit trafficking in conventional weapons remains essential.
The future is also clouded by the threats of massive changes in climate driven by unchecked emissions and global instability urged by competition over shrinking supplies of inexpensive energy. We’ve put considerable thought into where FAS can make a unique contribution in this important area and chose to focus on a little-explored technology that can have a major impact on U.S. and world energy use — composite materials for residential and commercial construction. The goal is to design products that will be immediately attractive to the market without subsidies because they are safe, attractive and less expensive than alternatives. The research is obviously not a substitute for critically needed international agreements on climate or for a real national energy policy, but our research could lead to major reductions in energy use and emissions while agreements on carbon tracing and other measures move painfully ahead.
We’ve also launched a major new program in information technology focused on an area where a neglected field of research could pay huge dividends: Learning Technology. We’ve collaborated with leading corporate and academic researchers to define the need for a stronger learning technology research program and have worked hard to secure passage of legislation supporting the concept introduced with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. One of the best ways to understand research needs in this complex field is to try to build functioning systems. We’re well on our way in learning tools designed for three quite different subject areas and targeted age groups. These projects will be the focus of the next issue of the PIR so I won’t dwell on them here at length.
As you have undoubtedly noticed, we’re also celebrating our 60th year with a new format for the Public Interest Report. The PIR is designed to serve our members with a mixture of substantive articles and news about the organization itself. You’ll notice a number of changes. Printing technology has advanced to the point where full color images are affordable. We’ve changed the layout of the report to make it easier to find topics of interest. There will always be a letter from the President on the second page. In future issues the letter will deal with an urgent topic in science and policy. As always, the PIR will continue to be available through the FAS website.
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