Leader of hunt for WMDs to deliver Jacobson Lecture

David Kay, who led the U.S. search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in 2003, will deliver the Harold Jacobson Lecture at 3 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Rackham Amphitheatre.

In "What is the Future of Non-Proliferation?" Kay is slated to discuss efforts to prevent additional states from acquiring nuclear weapons and the emergence of a global black market in materials and technology for WMDs, including biological and nuclear weapons.

"It's not your father's proliferation threat," Kay said last week, adding that during the Cold War era, proliferation could be addressed as a "state-based threat" through negotiations between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries, or between India and Pakistan.

"It's become much messier. States are now literally months away form having nuclear weapons if they decide to," Kay said. "I think what you have to do is identify the key of what worked before; you have to change the incentive system for states to comply."

Appointed by CIA Director George Tenant to head the search for WMDs in Iraq, Kay responded forthrightly to criticism in 2004 after WMDs were not found. The Bush Administration earlier had maintained that Iraq had such weapons and cited this as a pretext to going to war.

"We went there with the expectation, or at least the hope, that the Iraqis were at least going to cooperate," Kay said. "(It) didn't take very long on my first mission to find out that wasn't going to be the case."

Kay and his team found valuable evidence at Iraq's Ministry of Labor, and when they tried to leave the parking lot, the Iraqi army surrounded them. The team was not permitted to leave without turning over film and videotape of their findings.

The world watched the standoff on television—Kay and 43 inspectors versus Saddam Hussein. The confrontation lasted for four days before the Iraqi leader let them go with the documents.

Kay currently consults on counterterrorism and weapons proliferation, and frequently serves as a commentator on Capitol Hill and in the national media. He is a senior fellow with the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

An annual event, the Jacobson Lecture celebrates the contributions of its namesake to the Institute for Social Research Center for Political Studies (ISRCPS) and the University. Kay has co-authored a book with Jacobson on the management of international organizations.

The lecture is co-sponsored by ISRCPS and the Department of Political Science.

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