Strategic Terrorism: A Call to Action by Nathan Myhrvold

"It’s a deeply challenging read—written in layman’s terms that anyone can understand yet with enormous technical sophistication, a deep sense of the history of American security efforts, and a savvy about the way government operates that makes Myhrvold’s bureaucratic arguments depressingly cogent."
-- Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief, Lawfare

As technology has advanced, so too has its power to destroy with weapons of war or terrorism. Once only superpowers could possess terrifying weapons like nuclear bombs, but technological trends will soon deliver that kind of lethality to minor nation-states, stateless terror groups, and potentially even individuals. The most frightening of all technological possibilities is the development of biological agents, including both natural and engineered plagues.

In his essay, Strategic Terrorism: A Call to Action, Myhrvold presents the case for making important changes to our national defense and intelligence resources before catastrophe occurs. While the U.S. today is focused on preventing war with other nations and what he calls tactical terrorism—things like bombings—which can kill many people but don’t fundamentally threaten humanity as a whole, modern technological advancements have given small private parties, perhaps even just an individual, “access to weapons that are as destructive as—or possibly even more destructive than—those held by any nation-state.” He writes, “For the first time in human history, the curve of cost versus lethality has turned rapidly downward . . .” And, to combat this type of aggression, Myhrvold writes, “[the U.S. government and other nations of the world are] utterly unprepared.”

But, while he reveals our bleak current state, Myhrvold argues that “we can forestall and, with luck, prevent total catastrophe in the long run” by making substantial structural changes to our government and even, perhaps, some changes that may run counter to the core tenets of our democracy and beliefs about civil liberties. In his thought-provoking essay, Myhrvold challenges us all to consider these issues in a carefully weighed and rational manner and asks “Is the cost to society in lives really worth more than the cost of constraints on civil liberties?”