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Suggested Citation:"Opening Remarks." National Research Council. 2002. High-Impact Terrorism: Proceedings of a Russian-American Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10301.
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Suggested Citation:"Opening Remarks." National Research Council. 2002. High-Impact Terrorism: Proceedings of a Russian-American Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10301.
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Page 2

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Opening Remarks Siegfried S. Hecker Los Alamos National Laboratory I would like to thank the Russian Academy of Sciences, especially Acade- mician Nikolai Laverov and my cochair, Academician Yevgeny Velikhov, for hosting this workshop. Very special thanks go to Glenn Schweitzer and Yury Shiyan, who were the principal organizers of the workshop. During the next three days we will discuss one of the most important issues facing the world today that of terrorism in high-technology society and modern methods to prevent it and respond to it. Terrorism knows no boundaries. The problem is international, but the effects are felt locally. Every day, someone in the world dies at the hands of terrorists, be it in Volgograd, Oklahoma City, Israel, or Indonesia. Terrorism is a very big problem with many dimensions. We will focus on terrorism in a high-technology society or what we can call high-impact terror- ism. Hence, we will cover terrorism with the potential for mass destruction (such as nuclear, chemical, and biological) and terrorism with the potential for mass disruption (such as cyberterrorism and the use of conventional explosives against high-value targets). Terrorism is a problem of great importance to government. It threatens the lives of its citizens. Moreover, it threatens government itself. I view terrorism as the number one threat to all democracies of the world, especially those nations in which the roots of democracy are still very shallow. So, why are the National Academies of Russia and the United States hosting this workshop? I believe that since this problem has so many dimensions, it should be viewed from as many different points of view as possible, including those of scientists and engineers. Also, high-impact terrorism has a significant science and technology dimension. There are many areas in which specialists 1

2 HIGH-IMPACT TERRORISM can help. The U.S. National Academies have a long record of involvement in this area. Finally, sometimes our governments fail to cooperate on the very prob- lems that need cooperation most. In such cases, an informal dialogue can often help to catalyze necessary government actions. My cochair, Academician Ve- likhov, can give us such examples in the area of nuclear arms control. Therefore, I believe it is quite appropriate that the National Academies of Russia and the United States provide the forum for this workshop. We thank the Carnegie Corporation of New York for its financial sponsorship. I want to re- mind participants that this is a workshop. Hence, we encourage discussion and the building of personal networks. The objectives of the workshop, as I see them, are to (1) share our experi- ences in combating terrorism and (2) explore together how we can collaborate in the future to more effectively combat terrorism. Terrorism is one area where over the years we in the United States have more experience, simply because terrorism is a greater threat in a more open society. In that spirit, our specialists have brought not only their own work, but other key references in the field. It is our hope that you will be able to build a library here in Russia, with these references complementing your own. The desired outcomes for the workshop are that we learn much from each other and that we define specific follow-up actions and build future collabora- tions, both on a personal level and as a group through the Russian and U.S. National Academies.

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In June 2001 the National Academies and the Russian Academy of Sciences held a bilateral workshop in Moscow on terrorism in a high--technology society and modern methods to prevent and respond to it. The purpose of the workshop was to begin a dialogue on high--impact terrorism that could lead to further U.S.--Russian collaboration. This volume includes papers presented at the workshop by 31 Russian and American experts on various types of high-impact terrorism, including biological and agricultural terrorism, nuclear and electromagnetic terrorism, explosives, chemical, and technological terrorism, and cyber terrorism. The papers also address legal issues, Russian internal affairs, and the future of international cooperation in this area.

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