Blair, Charles P.
Biography
Charles P. Blair is a Senior Fellow on State and Non-State Threats. Born and raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Mr. Blair has had long and enduring experience with national security issues.
As an exchange student in Moscow in the mid-1980s, he witnessed firsthand the closing salvos of the Cold War. Since the end of that era, Mr. Blair has worked on issues relating to the diffusion and diversification of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the context of state proliferation amid the rise of mass casualty terrorism incidents. Mr. Blair’s focuses on the role of WMD with both state and violent non-state actors. He explores the perceptions of new disruptive technologies (e.g., WMD) and specific indicators of forthcoming proliferation, both state and non-state.
In 2001 Mr. Blair worked for the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) and was later a research associate with the Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program. While with CNS, Mr. Blair spent a year with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI). During that period Mr. Blair privately spent over two years researching U.S. counterproliferation strategies — e.g., revised justifications for earth penetrating nuclear weapons amid the growth of hardened and deeply buried targets. Subsequently at CNS, Mr. Blair expanded this early study and collaborated on policy guidance with a detailed review of the history and current trajectory of U.S. nuclear negative security assurances amid preventative / preemptive military counterproliferation endeavors.
Mr. Blair is also a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University where he teaches graduate students the technologies underlying WMD and at George Mason University with classes on the nexus of terrorism and WMD.
Publications:
Terrorism Analysis Report #1
2012 March 1: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, "Fearful of a Nuclear Iran? The Real WMD Nightmare is Syria"
2011 November 16: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, "Fatwas For Fission: Assessing the Terrorist Threat to Pakistan's Nuclear Assets"
2011 July 27: Norway's Anders Breivik: Weapons of Mass Destruction and Politics of Cultural Despair
In the News:
2012 March 23: New Scientist, "Syrian Uprising Raises Fears Over Chemical Weapons"
2012 March 13: National Post, "Syria a Chemical Weapon 'Power Keg Ready to Explode,' Experts Fear"
2011 November 17: Hindustan Times, "Real Threat Assessment of Pak Nukes Not Yet Made"
2011 September 16: Huffington Post, "Lone Wolves and Home-Grown Terrorists: Experts Warn of a Growing Threat from Unusual Sources"
2011 September 8: Dayton Daily News, "A Decade Later, Terrorists Have Not Employed Nuclear Weapons"
2011 July 28: Global Security Newswire, "Norway Killer Claims Allies Are Attempting to Acquire WMD"
2011 July 8: Associated Press, "Woman Accused of Shipping Paint to Pakistani Plant" (mention of Terrorism Analysis Report)
2011 July 1: CNN, "Could Terrorists Take Pakistan Nukes?"
2011 June 29: Politico, "Report: 'Neo-Taliban' Are Most Dangerous Terror Group"
2011 June 29: Wall Street Journal - India Real Time, "Are Pakistan's Nukes Safe?"
2011 June 29: CNN - Global Public Square, "New Report Warns on Pakistan's Nukes"
2011 June 29: Business Insider, "Radicals Closer Than Ever to Pakistan's Nukes"
2011 June 29: iWatch News, "Neo-Taliban Groups Rely o Bold Attacks, Military Connections"
Video:
2011 July 1: CNN, "Could Terrorists Take Pakistan Nukes?"
