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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
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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.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
yevgeny velikhov
