Responding to the Global Nuclear Threat

Responding to the Global Nuclear Threat
Robert Gallucci CCGA/file
Responding to the Global Nuclear Threat
Robert Gallucci CCGA/file

Responding to the Global Nuclear Threat

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The global nuclear order remains unstable, particularly due to the challenges posed by Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan. Expanding nuclear ambition, growing nuclear weapons programs, and ongoing instability in these states have changed the international environment, leaving classical forms of diplomacy little room to counter increasing proliferation. Furthermore, the acquisition of a nuclear device or fissile material by a terrorist group has the potential to alter the present fragile nuclear order and transform the world. Standing as one of the world’s greatest dangers, how should we be responding to the global nuclear threat?

Robert Gallucci became president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on July 1, 2009, having previously served for thirteen years as dean of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Prior to this, Gallucci completed a twenty-one year career in the government where he served in several capacities, including with the U.S. Department of State as ambassador-at-large and as a special envoy to deal with the threat posed by the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. He held this position, concurrent with his appointment as dean, until January 2001. Before joining the State Department, he taught at Swarthmore College, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Georgetown University. He has authored a number of publications on political-military issues, including Neither Peace Nor Honor: The Politics of American Military Policy in Vietnam and Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis with Joel S. Wit and Daniel Poneman. For Going Critical, he received the 2005 Douglas Dillon Award given by the American Academy of Diplomacy for a book of distinction in the practice of diplomacy. Gallucci earned his B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University.

Recorded Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at the Blackstone Hotel.