FAS Roundup – December 16, 2019

By Federation of American Scientists • December 16, 2019

Conventional Deterrence of North Korea
In a brand new report, Adam Mount explains how rapid technological and doctrinal advancements on both sides of the DMZ have created new risks and new opportunities for stability in North Korea, and makes updates to obsolete concepts of conventional deterrence.

Confronting Foreign Threats to Basic Research
In his latest Secrecy News blog posts, Steven Aftergood covers a new report from JASON on foreign scientists and research ethics, as well as corruption in secrecy practices and hiccups in the FISA process.

Johnson & Johnson CEO a no-show for Congressional hearing on detecting carcinogens in consumer products
Notably absent from last week’s House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy hearing was Johnson & Johnson’s CEO, Alex Gorsky, who had been asked to testify in part because thousands of lawsuits targeting the company’s talc-based baby powder are progressing through the courts. Read more about the hearing, in this week’s Congressional Science Policy Institute newsletter.

The Journal of Peace and Nuclear Disarmament at Nagasaki University has published the first three installments of a series of interviews with Frank von Hippel, co-founder of Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security and professor of public and international affairs emeritus at Princeton University, and former FAS chair.

The three parts that have been released cover respectively the early years and transition from physics to nuclear policy, the engagement with US nuclear weapons policy and Cold War nuclear arms control, and the collaborations between US and Soviet scientists to help end the Cold War arms race (including the role of FAS).

FAS president Ali Nouri joined the Council of Scientific Society Presidents at their Winter 2019 workshop, presenting a panel on The Future of Science and Scientific Leaders in the US.

Categories: FAS Roundup