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Newsletter:  October 2003/ Issue 5
Message from the New PNWCGS Director

“It may be,” Carol Kessler, new director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security said, “that to deal more effectively with nuclear proliferation, one needs to look more holistically at the range of problems facing a country. You may need to address economic and environmental conditions, even political structures, as well as the technical/nuclear ones. These others may actually be root causes behind a country’s desire to obtain or sell nuclear weapons.”

Citing her work with the G-7 to help Ukraine close the Chornobyl plant, Kessler noted that until the G-7 took into account some of Ukraine’s broader economic and non-nuclear energy problems, a successful route to closing Chornobyl was not possible. “So there can be important tradeoffs,” she said, “and we need to discover them.”

Kessler, who served as Deputy Director General for the Nuclear Energy Agency at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development from August 2001 until joining PNWCGS, envisions the Center delving into this “broader examination” of nuclear nonproliferation and international security problems, including investigating possible political, social, economic, energy, and environmental issues where PNNL expertise can be brought to bear. Harking back to the G-7 initiative, Kessler noted that nuclear safety work did not stop, nor political pressure for closure cease, but those efforts were integrated with economic, non-nuclear energy and social technical assistance to ensure a more effective solution to the Chornobyl closure problem.

PNNL offers a unique setting for the Center as a Department of Energy Office of Science Laboratory with a National Security Directorate. PNNL is divided into four Directorates: Fundamental Science, Environmental Technology, Energy Science and Technology and National Security. These provide avenues for the Center to harness new and different resources for DOE on national security issues. Also with this broad array of capabilities, PNNL can work with a broad base of U.S. government and private organizations entities in the Pacific Northwest, bringing these resources to bear on international security problems as well. This capability at PNNL provides an important chance for PNNL to team with DOE defense program laboratories on national security issues. “My hope,” she said, “ is that the Center will become a broader resource for the Department of Energy through Center activities with other governmental and nongovernmental entities. And I’m especially excited about working with private companies and the academic community in the Pacific Northwest.”

Coordinating among disciplines characterizes Kessler’s career. It began with her bachelor’s degree which she cobbled together out of the biology, chemistry and geology departments at Brown University to create an AB in Bio-Geology. Her master’s work continued the trend with her attendance at the MIT’s Technology and Policy program where students from a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines were asked to apply their skills jointly to solving specific science policy problems. But it was her work in the State Department as the Senior Coordinator for Nuclear Safety that crystallized her vision that successful resolution of complex security issues such as nuclear safety requires discovering ways to address simultaneously some of the interlocking problems that countries face in their pursuit of political and social stability and economical security..

Kessler’s interest in non-proliferation was born in her graduate work. Her bio-geology career was transformed by Professor Marvin Miller, whose course at MIT, Energy in the 21st Century, introduced her to the concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation. She looks forward to working with students affiliated with the University of Washington’s Institute for Global and Regional Security Studies to encourage their interest in careers in nonproliferation and arms control. There are few formal training programs in this discipline—an urgent need as the non-proliferation community ages. She hopes to help address as Director of the Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security.

Kessler’s last two years at the Nuclear Energy Agency in Paris added another dimension to her experience and vision - the importance of America’s international relationships. She believes that effective international relations are essential to addressing nonproliferation. She hopes that the Center can foster further collaboration between PNNL and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and other organizations working in this area.

Asked why she decided to accept the Center’s directorship, she said without hesitation, “The people. Absolutely. I came into the interviews with little understanding of the dynamic group that exists here at PNNL. Paris was my dream city. There was no way I was going to leave. But I was overwhelmed by the warmness and intellectual interest of the people I met in Richland and Seattle. I have moved constantly throughout my life and seen many different places. When I came to Seattle I realized, ‘This is a place I could be happy. This is a place I eventually can call home.”

Carol Kessler
PNWCGS Director

The Founding Director of PNWCGS, Jim Fuller, was succeeded by Carol Kessler, former Senior Coordinator for Nuclear Safety at the Department of State. Kessler, who has an extensive background in nuclear energy and nonproliferation, will be the new director of the Center as it reorganizes itself to expand its policy research and international role.