India-United States
Cooperation on Science and
Technology for Countering
Terrorism
Summary of a Workshop
Rita Guenther, Micah Lowenthal, and Lalitha Sundaresan, Rapporteurs
Committee on India-United States Cooperation on
Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
In Cooperation with the National Institute for Advanced Studies
Bangalore, India
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Contract/Grant No. S-ISNCT-12-CA-1003 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. State Department. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
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NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON INDIA-UNITED STATES COOPERATION ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR COUNTERING TERRORISM
Norman R. Augustine (NAS, NAE), Chair, Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Penrose (Parney) Albright, Associate Director at Large, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
John Holmes, Deputy Executive Director of Operations, Port of Los Angeles (former)
Nancy B. Jackson, Manager, International Chemical Threat Reduction Department, Global Security Center, Sandia National Laboratories
Randall S. Murch, Associate Director, Research Development Team, National Capital Region, Virginia Tech
Nancy Jo Nicholas, Associate Director for Threat Identification and Response, Los Alamos National Laboratory
George Perkovich, Vice President for Studies and Director, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Stephen P. Cohen, Brookings Institution (retired), Consultant
National Research Council Staff
Rita S. Guenther, Study Director
Micah D. Lowenthal, Director, Committee on International Security and Arms Control
Wei Jing, Research Associate
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES COMMITTEE ON INDIA-UNITED STATES COOPERATION ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR COUNTERING TERRORISM
V. S. Ramamurthy, Chair, Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
Manoj Bali, Director, Directorate of Low Intensity Conflict, Defence Research and Development Organisation, New Delhi, India
H. V. Batra, Director, Defence Food Research Laboratory, Mysore, India
S. Chandrashekar, Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India
S. Gopal, Government of India, retired
Rajaram Nagappa, Program Head, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
Gulshan Rai, Director, CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) and Group Corrdinator, Cyber Law Division, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, New Delhi, India
Anuradha Reddy, Director of Personnel, Ministry of Defence, New Delhi, India
A. K. Sinha, Senior Research Officer, National Disaster Management Authority, New Delhi, India
Lalitha Sundaresan, Visiting Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
Preface and Acknowledgments
The governments of India and the United States initiated a bilateral Homeland Security Dialogue in May 2011 with a visit by then U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to meet with former Indian Minister of Home Affairs P. Chidambaram. The 2011 meeting marked the first comprehensive bilateral dialogue between the two countries, which was established to “strengthen the global strategic partnership between the United States and India on issues ranging from cybersecurity and megacity policing, to counterterrorism and countering violent extremism.”1 The dialogue is a mechanism by which the two countries reaffirm their commitment to work cooperatively on law enforcement issues, combat common threats, improve bilateral cooperation through the development and application of innovative technology, combat the flow of illicit finances and currency counterfeiting, and to work closely to counter terrorism and promote cybersecurity. Further, the Homeland Security Dialogue facilitates the identification of “areas in which the United States and India can collaborate on science and technology development and its application in the homeland security context.”2
India and the United States are the world’s two largest democracies, with distinguished scientific traditions and experts in a wide range of scientific-technical fields. Given these strengths and the ability to learn from one another, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) together with the National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Bangalore, India, held a joint Indian-U.S. workshop to identify and examine potential areas for substantive scientific and technical cooperation that can support cooperation and counterterrorism efforts through the Homeland Security Dialogue and through direct cooperation. The workshop agenda included biological threats (health and agriculture); protection of nuclear facilities; security (physical and cyber) for chemicals, chemical facilities and other critical infrastructure; and monitoring, surveillance, and emergency response. To accomplish this, NIAS and NAS convened technical experts from India and the United States to begin discussions about science and technol-
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1Department of Homeland Security. “Readout of U.S.-India Homeland Security Dialogue.” Available at http://www.dhs.gov/news/2013/05/21/readout-us-india-homeland-security-dialogue; accessed July 25, 2014.
2Ibid.
ogy to counter terrorism, and to identify promising opportunities for India and the United States to learn from each other and cooperate in these critical areas. The workshop was hosted by NIAS from February 3 to 5, 2014, and built upon a successful NAS-NIAS joint workshop held in Goa, India, in 2004, which produced a report entitled, Science and Technology to Counter Terrorism: Proceedings of an Indo-U.S. Workshop.3 One decade later, the 2014 workshop summarized in this report underscored the extent to which experts from India and the United States have increased their cooperation as well as the tremendous opportunities that remain for further joint efforts.
In preparation for the workshop, NAS formed a planning committee comprising prominent scientists, engineers, and a South Asia expert. The planning committee members and NAS staff worked collaboratively with scientific and technical experts in India, NIAS leadership, and staff counterparts to develop the agenda for the workshop. During a planning trip taken by NAS planning committee members and staff in August 2013, the two groups met and refined the agenda, identified potential speakers, and determined other elements of the workshop. In addition, NIAS and NAS organizers met with key officials in the government of India, who provided their support for and input to the workshop. The workshop itself enabled Indian and U.S. experts to describe their work and plans for future activities on a breadth of scientific and technical areas relevant to counter terrorism.
The following summary intentionally includes a large portion of the material discussed during the workshop to provide readers with extensive insights into the views of the Indian and U.S. participants. The challenges they described are faced by both the United States and India, and both nations have much to learn from the exchange of information and experiences to increase security, efficiency of operations, and the safety of employees, location populations, and the environment. As a result, the technical approaches detailed here will be of interest to many readers. For those readers interested in a high-level overview of the workshop discussions, key messages and promising topics for collaboration arising from the presentations and discussions have been pulled out in the Synopsis.
The U.S. Department of State funded NAS participation in this workshop, with supplemental funding from the Patel Endowment to the NAS. NIAS provided substantial financial support for the workshop by providing housing and meals for participants, as well as providing the facilities and administrative and technical support for the workshop. The generous support of all sponsors is greatly appreciated.
This report is a factual summary of the presentations and discussions at the workshop, and does not provide consensus findings or recommendations. The
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3National Academy of Sciences. Science and Technology to Counter Terrorism: Proceedings of an Indo-U.S. Workshop. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2007. Available at: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11848; accessed October 24, 2014.
key issues and selected thoughts on goals and opportunities for collaboration noted in the synopsis at the beginning of the report are some of those raised by individual workshop participants, and do not in any way indicate consensus of the workshop participants overall.
This report has been prepared by the workshop rapporteurs as a factual summary of the presentations and discussions at the workshop and does not provide consensus findings and recommendations. The planning committee’s role was limited to planning and convening the workshop. The key issues and selected thoughts on goals and opportunities for collaboration noted in the synopsis at the beginning of the report are some of those raised by individual workshop participants. Those statements, and any other views presented in the report, are those of individual workshop participants and do not necessarily represent the views of all workshop participants, the planning committee, or the National Academy of Sciences.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Ravi Grover, Homi Bhabha National Institute; John Holmes, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired); David Kaufman, Federal Emergency Management Agency; Vivek Lall, General Atomics; Michel O’Brien, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Amy Sands, Monterey Institute of International Studies; and Jeffrey Starr, Neo Prime Solutions, Inc.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the report, nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Mona Dreicer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, appointed by the National Academies, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the rapporteurs and the institution. Technical experts of both India and the United States, as demonstrated during this workshop, seek opportunities to work together on issues related to counter-terrorism. While the task of addressing such a broad range of terrorist threats is vast, so too is the experience and expertise available in our two countries to meet this challenge. Joint efforts such as this workshop provide the basis for India and the United States to continue to learn from each other, to exchange ideas for collaborative efforts, and to increase the confidence and support necessary to take their cooperation further as they work to counter terrorism in their respective countries and around the world.
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Contents
1 THE REALITIES OF TERRORISM IN INDIA
Challenges of Terrorism in India
2 SYSTEMS APPROACHES TO COUNTERING TERRORISM
Systems Approaches to Countering Terrorism
Indian Response Regarding a Systems Approach to Countering Terrorism
3 PROTECTING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Security at Chemical Facilities
Agricultural and Food Security
Protecting Critical Infrastructure
4 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TO COUNTER TERRORISM IN CRITICAL AREAS
Cybersecurity in Its Complexity
Global Health Security and Strengthening Public Health Infrastructures
Technical Aspects of Nuclear Security
From Suggestions to Cooperation
5 EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AND RESPONSE: ALL-HAZARDS APPROACH
U.S. and Indian Experiences with Emergency Management and Response
The Challenges of Conventional Terrorism
6 LEARNING AND APPLYING BEST PRACTICES TO COUNTER TERRORISM
Case Studies from India and the United States
Forensic Capabilities during the Response Phases, Attribution and Perpetrator Prosecution
A INDIA-U.S. WORKSHOP ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR COUNTERING TERRORISM - FINAL AGENDA
C BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF WORKSHOP SPEAKERS AND SESSION MODERATORS
D BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF U.S. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
E BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES PLANNING COMMITTEE MEMBERS