On April 12, the Strauss Center welcomed Hon. Andy Weber, Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks, for a talk on “Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction.” This was part of our Brumley Speaker Series.

Sometimes jokingly referred to as “the Forrest Gump of nonproliferation” for his presence at nearly every major nonproliferation success in the last three decades, Weber used this framing to recount some of the highlights of his career working with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons during the hour-long program.

The event began with Weber speaking about his time as a Foreign Service Officer in the newly independent nation of Kazakhstan in the 1990s and his surprise to learn from a contemporary in the region that there was over 1,000 pounds of poorly secured, highly enriched uranium stored in the country. This kicked off what came to be known as Project Sapphire, a covert operation spearheaded by Weber that ultimately led to the complete removal of this uranium from Kazakhstan and its transport to the United States. Weber then discussed other major projects in the subsequent decades, which ranged from recovering improperly buried biological weapons in Uzbekistan to removing chemical weapons from Syria. After his presentation, Weber fielded a number of questions from audience members, including what policymakers should do to combat the spread of weapons in mass destruction in the future.

Watch the full talk here:

Biography

Hon. Andy Weber is an independent consultant and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank. He has dedicated his professional life to countering nuclear, chemical, and biological threats and to strengthening global health security.

Weber’s thirty years of US government service included five-and-a-half years as President Obama’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs. He was a driving force behind Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction efforts to remove weapons-grade uranium from Kazakhstan and Georgia and nuclear-capable MiG-29 aircraft from Moldova, to reduce biological weapons threats, and to destroy Libyan and Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles. In addition, he coordinated US leadership of the international Ebola response for the Department of State.

Prior to joining the Pentagon as Advisor for Threat Reduction Policy in December 1996, Mr. Weber was posted abroad as a US Foreign Service Officer in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Kazakhstan, and Hong Kong. Mr. Weber is currently a Strategic Advisor for Ginkgo BioWorks and consultant for DARPA, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and others. He serves on the Boards of the Arms Control Association and Healthcare Ready, and the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies International Advisory Council.

He taught a course on Force and Diplomacy at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Foreign Service for seven years, and was a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Mr. Weber graduated from Cornell University and holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) degree from Georgetown University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His twitter handle is @AndyWeberNCB

Add to My Calendar