MIT World Speakers

Jim Walsh

Jim Walsh's research focus is international security, and specifically, weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. Walsh has testified before the United States Senate on the issue of nuclear terrorism and chaired the Harvard University International Working Group on Radiological Terrorism. Among his current projects are two series of dialogues on nuclear issues, one with representatives from North Korea and one with leading figures in Iran.

Since 2001, Walsh has given some 700 media interviews, including more than 300 appearances on CNN. His comments and analysis have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and numerous other publications. His most recent publications include “Iran's Nuclear Program: Motivations, Consequences, and Options” in Terrorist Attacks and Nuclear Proliferation: Strategies for Overlapping Dangers (Academy of Political Science, 2007); “The Nuclear Weapons Danger” in A Muslim-Christian Study and Action Guide to the Nuclear Weapons Dange (Islamic Society of North America and the Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy, 2007); and “Learning from Past Success: The NPT and the Future of Non-proliferation” for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission chaired by Hans Blix (2006).

Before coming to MIT, Walsh was Executive Director of the Managing the Atom Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was also a visiting scholar at the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Walsh received his Ph.D from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.