In 2006, the world finally surpassed an enormous benchmark: the consumption of one cubic mile of oil each year. That’s equivalent to 1.1. trillion gallons or 26 billion barrels of oil. In the conversation surrounding energy consumption, it can be hard to keep interest and sustain any meaningful dialogue as commentators must often wade through [...]
The United States Institute of Peace held a conference Wednesday, June 27, 2012 in Washington, D.C., to present a series of commissioned papers on the changing and static elements of Iranian politics. The papers focused on topics such as the effects of welfare on Iranian society, the presence or lack of the rule of law, [...]
Dr. Matthew Meselson, a Harvard biologist and longtime advocate for biological disarmament, (and a member of FAS’s Board of Sponsors) spoke Tuesday, June 26th at a briefing hosted by FAS in Washington, D.C. on the recent history of biodefense and the need for oversight on biodefense efforts. “Infective agents don’t stop at frontiers. They don’t [...]
While the New START Treaty provides an unprecedented exchange of information between the United States and Russia, in a hearing on June 21 some senators aired their concern with the Obama administration’s commitment to fulfill its promise to modernize the U.S. arsenal. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee analyzed the Treaty’s implementation since February 2011. Massachusetts [...]
In 2007, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote “In the world of ideas, to name something is to own it.” On June 20, 2012, Robert Litwak investigated a similar idea regarding the relationship between terminology and United States policy. The event, called the National Conversation, was the first of a series produced by [...]
President Bashar al-Assad has left the United States with no option other than military intervention, according to a panel hosted by the American Enterprise Institute on June 25, 2012. Arizona Senator John McCain spoke to a room of about 100 people. He argued that given Assad’s military domination of the opposition, Assad had little reason [...]
On Tuesday, June 12, the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities investigated the determining metrics for nonproliferation programs. The meeting, which was led by Senators Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio, featured testimonies from Madelyn Creedon, the assistant secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs, Anne Harrington, the deputy administrator for [...]
On Tuesday, the Atomic Heritage Foundation hosted a panel of speakers at the Elliott School of International Affairs to present on physicist Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences he helped run. Andrew Brown, an author and radiation oncologist, spoke on Rotblat’s formative years before his involvement with the Pugwash Conferences. From his childhood spent [...]
FAS held a briefing Tuesday about the new strategies and technologies being used in nuclear detection. Dr. Huban Gowadia, Deputy Director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office at the Department of Homeland Security, gave the presentation and described the “revolution” taking place. Throughout history, various technologies have redefined the way wars have been fought, e.g. [...]