Stanford professor to discuss nuclear proliferation in Hollybush lecture

Stanford University political scientist Scott D. Sagan will discuss "The Perils of Nuclear Proliferation in Iran, Pakistan and North Korea" during a talk on Thursday, Nov. 8, at 4:30 p.m. in Boyd Hall at Rowan University in Glassboro.

Sagan's appearance at Rowan is one of a series of events planned for the 2007-08 academic year to mark the 40th anniversary of the Hollybush Summit at Rowan.

Co-director of Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Sagan formerly served as a special assistant to the director of the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon. He also served as a consultant to the office of the Secretary of Defense and at the Sandia National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Before joining Stanford's faculty, Sagan was a lecturer in the Department of Government at Harvard University.

According to its web site, the mission of Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation "is to produce policy-relevant research on international security problems, to train the next generation of security specialists, and to influence policymaking in international security." To that end, Sagan co-founded Stanford's Interschool Honors Program in International Security Studies in 2000.

Sagan is the author of Moving Targets: Nuclear Strategy and National Security (Princeton University Press, 1989) and The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents and Nuclear Weapons (Princeton University Press, 1993). Additionally, Sagan is co-author, with Kenneth Waltz, of The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed (W.W. Norton, 2002) and co-editor, with Peter R. Lavoy and James L. Wirtz, of Planning the Unthinkable (Cornell University Press, 2000).

A prolific writer, Sagan's recent articles have included: "How to Keep the Bomb From Iran," published in Foreign Affairs (2006); "The Madman Nuclear Alert: Secrecy, Signaling and Safety in October 1969," co-written by Jeremi Suri and published in International Security (2003); and "The Problem of Redundancy Problem: Will More Nuclear Security Forces Produce More Nuclear Security?" published in Risk Analysis (2004). "Redundancy" won Columbia University's Institute for War and Peace Studies Best Paper in Political Violence prize.

Another article, "Realism, Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction," appears in Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Religious and Secular Perspectives. Currently, Sagan is finishing a collection of essays for a book tentatively titled Inside Nuclear South Asia.

Sagan's research interests include the development of norms concerning the use of force, the management of hazardous technology and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and South Asia.

During the Summit at Hollybush, held in June of 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Premir Alexei Kosygin met at the Hollybush Mansion on the grounds of then-Glassboro State College. The two world leaders met face-to-face for a historic two-day summit to debate their opposing views on the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War and to discuss the perils of the nuclear arms race. While Johnson and Kosygin signed no formal agreement, they did acknowledge that that the summit was successful, and that it helped start to ease some Cold War tensions.

Sagan's talk is part of a year-long series of events planned at the University to commemorate the summit and to explore issues that faced the world then-and now. Upcoming events include:

"The U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the Development of African-American Studies," a symposium featuring panelists Junius Williams of Rutgers, Karen Jackson-Weaver of Princeton, and Tukufu Zuberi of Penn.

"National Intelligence Estimate: What Went Wrong," with Bob Graham, former U.S. Senator and governor of Florida.

"Johnson and Kosygin and the Dawn of Détente," with speaker Sergei Khrushchev, senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies and son of the late Nikita Khrushchev, former general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

"Soldiers of the Cold War: Political activism of ethic groups in the U.S. during the Cold War," featuring a host of panelists from colleges and universities nationwide.

April 11 panel discussion with moderator Dan Rather, former CBS Evening News anchor, and the following panelists: William Porter, director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferation Studies at Monterey Institute of International Studies; Joseph Cirincione, senior fellow and director for the Nuclear Policy Center for American Progress; and Rose Gottemoeller, Moscow Centre Director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

April 12 symposium (Keynote speakers to be determined).

For more information about Hollybush activities or to view historic video from the Summit, visit www.rowan.edu/hollybush or call 856-256-4240.