Sam Nunn

The greatest threat to American and international security is weapons of mass destruction, contends Sam Nunn in the following viewpoint. He asserts that the use of these weapons by terrorist groups, such as the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan, will increase in coming years. Nunn argues that domestic and global strategies must be developed in order to reduce the threat. Nunn, a former U.S. senator from Georgia, is a Distinguished Professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In Nunn’s view, what risks were created by the collapse of the Soviet Union?
2. What steps had Aum Shinrikyo taken to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction, according to the author?
3. According to Nunn, which...