THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
OFFICE OF NEWS AND INFORMATION
3003 N. Charles Street, Suite 100
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-3843
Phone (410) 516-7160 / Fax (410) 516-5251
January 7, 2000
MEDIA ADVISORY
To: Reporters, Editors, Producers
From: Glenn Small
410-516-6094
Re: WHAT YELTSIN'S DEPARTURE MEANS FOR STRATEGIC DEFENSE
As you prepare stories or programs on what happens in Russia now that Boris Yeltsin is out as president, consider an angle that is not discussed much anymore, but should be of grave concern to all of us, according to a Johns Hopkins University professor and expert on nuclear weapons and strategic defense.
Political scientist Steven David says today most people have stopped worrying about a Russian nuclear weapon ever being used against an American target, but that complacency could be a deadly mistake. "My view, and I think the view of many others, is that there is a greater chance now of a Russian nuclear weapon being used in anger than there ever was during the Cold War."
"It's a frightening proposition," he continued. "And it's somewhat ironic to me that at a time when we have to worry about these issues, we're worrying far less about them."
"During the Cold War, we had a rational, risk-averse, somewhat conservative leadership in the Soviet Union that had very tight control over the nuclear stockpiles," said David. "Now we have a situation, where the leadership is in flux; we're not sure who's going to be in power on any given day. And the control over the nuclear weapons is much more loose than it was during the Cold War."
"It's not a hot political issue, because people are not worried about this," David continued. "My fear is people will only start worrying about this once some attack is made--biological, nuclear--and then everyone will say, 'My gosh, how did we ignore this threat for so long?'"
To get a sense of what David sounds like, you can listen to a RealAudio or .wav format audio clipping (38 seconds), recorded in broadcast quality audio.
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