Nuclear safety and security expert, research scholar, national security expert, television show producer
Known for
articles and books on nuclear topics
Bruce Gentry Blair (November 16, 1947 – July 19, 2020) was an Americannuclear security expert, research scholar, national security expert, the author of articles and books on nuclear topics, and a television show producer.
Blair was a nuclear security expert and a research scholar at the Program on Science and Global Security atPrinceton University'sWoodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.[8] Joining the program in May 2013, he focused on technical and policy steps on the path toward the verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons, specifically on deep bilateral nuclear arms reductions, multilateral arms negotiations and de-alerting of nuclear arsenals.[9] He was co-founder ofGlobal Zero, an international non-partisan group consisting of 300 world leaders, over 150 student chapters and millions of supporters worldwide dedicated to achieving the elimination of nuclear weapons.[10]
Blair was an expert on United States and Russian security policies, specializing innuclear forces andcommand and control systems.[11] He frequently testified beforeCongress.[12][13][14][15][16] In 2011, he was appointed to the U.S. Secretary of State's International Security Advisory Board, a small group of experts that provides the Department of State with independent insight and advice on all aspects of international security, disarmament and arms control.[17] He also taught security studies as a visiting professor atYale andPrinceton universities. In 1999, he was awarded aMacArthur Fellowship Prize for his research, work and leadership on de-alerting nuclear forces.[18] In 2008, he was selected as a finalist for theSkoll Social Entrepreneur Award.
Blair's expertise helped make nuclear and global affairs issues accessible to the public in various media outlets. He was anexecutive producer ofCountdown to Zero,[19] a documentary film onnuclear weapons.[20] He also created and was the executive producer of thePBS weekly television seriesSuperpower: Global Affairs Television (2002–2004), and was the executive producer for Azimuth Media and its weekly PBS television series,Foreign Exchange, which was first hosted byFareed Zakaria (2005–2007) and subsequently byDaljit Dhaliwal (2008–2009).
He published theWashington ProFile (Russian),Washington Observer (Chinese),Washington Prism (Persian),Taqrir Washington (Arabic) andChina Security.[21] He was also the executive producer of two television documentaries,CNN Presents' "Deadlock: Russia's Forgotten War"[22] and the PBSFrontline's "Missile Wars"[23] in 2002.
He was the author of numerous books and articles on security issues in such publications asScientific American,National Interest,The New York Times andThe Washington Post. His books includeStrategic Command and Control (Brookings, 1985), winner of theEdgar S. Furniss Award for its contribution to the study ofnational security;Crisis Stability and Nuclear War (Oxford, 1988; co-editor);The Logic of Accidental Nuclear War (Brookings, 1993); andGlobal Zero Alert for Nuclear Forces (Brookings, 1995).[24]
Forcing the military to implement McNamara's "Permissive Action Links"
In 2002 Blair said he had told former U.S. Secretary of DefenseRobert McNamara (1961-1968) the previous month that the secret codes (called "Permissive Action Links”) required to launch Minuteman missiles had all been set to OOOOOOOO. McNamara was shocked, because the top military leaders had assured him that those secret codes had been installed. In fact, the hardware had been installed. However, the secret codes had all been set to OOOOOOOO. Blair knew this, because one of his jobs while in the U.S. Air Force 1970 to 1974 had been as a Minuteman ICBM launch control officer. After he left the military, he began lobbying first the Department of Defense and then the U.S. Congress to change those codes to something different. They were officially "activated" in 1977. In discussing this, Blair concluded, "It is hard to know where to begin, and end, in recounting stories like this one that reveal how misinformed, misled, and misguided on critical nuclear matters our top leaders have been throughout the nuclear age."[25] For more, see Blair's other publications.[26]
"De-Alerting Strategic Forces", inReykjavik Revisited: Steps Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, George P. Shultz, Sidney D. Drell, and James E. Goodby, eds., (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2008).
"The Logic of Intelligence Failure," Forum on Physics and Society, American Physical Society, April 2004. (Also presented at the 10th International Castiglioncello Conference: "Unilateral Actions and Military Interventions: The Future of Nonproliferation," April 1, 2004.)
