Behind a New Principle for U.S. National Security

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- As a member of the president’sReview Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies,whose report was released this week, I was struck by some closeconnections between debates over national security and debatesover environmental protection. In both contexts, many peoplefavor the Precautionary Principle, which can lead in unfortunatedirections.

In environmental policy, the Precautionary Principle meanswe should take aggressive action to avoid risks, even if wedon’t know that those risks will come to fruition. If theproblem involves genetic modification of food or nuclear power,we should welcome precautions against potentially serioushazards, simply because it is prudent to be precautionary, andbetter to be safe than sorry.