The Sandspur

Issue date: 11/4/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Kelsey Field WEAPONS FORUM: Three renowned speakers discuss and lecture students about today's nuclear weapons issues.

On Thursday, October 27th, the Rollins College Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Artist Fund, the Global Connections Foundation, UCF's Global Perspectives Office and the Orlando Sentinel joined together to bring to Rollins three renowned speakers to speak about Weapons of Mass Destruction. President Duncan opened up the forum, which was moderated by John C. Bersia of UCF, and spoke of our future as students in a world of nuclear and chemical weapons.

The first speaker, Gerald Epstein, is currently a Senior Fellow for Science and Security in the Homeland Security Program. He began the discussion by illustrating the threat that biological weapons hold for the world, a threat that is reinforced by the fact that there are not huge amounts of intelligence regarding biological weapons. Unfortunately, that lack of intelligence has resulted in a broad spectrum of opinions in just what kind of threat these weapons hold, ranging from an extremely high threat to absolutely no threat. Gerald Epstein feels that biological weapons pose a large threat for numerous reasons, including that the materials that are used in biological weapons are used legitimately throughout most countries, and to assemble biological weapons does not require large amounts of capital. A scary fact about biological weapons is that they are easily transported through countries, and due to globalization attacking another country with biological weapons will spread like a ripple to those who may have previously been unable to assemble a weapon for whatever reason.

The next speaker, Sanam Vakil, a professor at the John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, spoke of the threat of Iran becoming a nuclear power. Although Iran has had a clandestine nuclear program since 1979, the election of a new president has resulted in a resurgence of Iran's demand to become a nuclear power. During the Iran/Iraq war, Iran became isolated from the international community, and as a result of that Iran is denying intelligence officials into the government. With the rise in the nuclear weapons program in Iran has also come a rise in nationalistic fervor, which continually backs the government in demanding nuclear rights. A major rift that has become between the US and Iran is that Iran feels it has a right to have a nuclear power plant, as that is part of the contract in the Non Proliferation Treaty that Iran signed. However, the US is now arguing that Iran's intentions have been covert, and that they are in fact planning to convert their plants to be capable of building nuclear weapons.

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