FOCUS 22 MARCH-APRIL 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL NUCLEAR SECURITY THE NUCLEAR SECURITY SUMMITS My path to leading the Nuclear Security Summits between 2010 and 2016 began in my undergraduate days, when I wrote a thesis on terrorism and marched against the 1980s nuclear arms race. It was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union—and the sudden risk that thousands of nuclear weapons and hundreds of tons of their key ingredients, uranium and plutonium, could be stolen or diverted by rogue generals or nonstate actors—that these two interests converged into the very real threat of nuclear terrorism. I worked at the center of U.S. efforts to reduce these threats through direct cooperation with the nations that emerged from that collapse, initially at the Department of Defense and later at the Department of Energy and a nongovernmental organization, Nuclear Threat Initiative. A combination of bureaucratic creativity, skillful diplomacy, and patriotic Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakhstani, and Belarusian individuals, who suddenly held the keys to the largest proliferation event in history, prevented the worst fears from becoming reality. A decade later, al-Qaida’s attacks on 9/11 showed how vulnerable the world was to apocalyptic ideologues with extensive resources and disciplined operations. Another decade later, Anders Behring Breivik—the far-right terrorist responsible for the 2011 attacks in Oslo and Utoya Island in Norway—drew attention to his manifesto containing highly detailed descripLaura S.H. Holgate was a two-time U.S. ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations International Organizations in Vienna and to the International Atomic Energy Agency. As special assistant to the president for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) terrorism from 2009 to 2016, she led the preparation and execution of the four Nuclear Security Summits. A key player in the Nuclear Security Summits (2010–2016) explains what diplomats achieved then— and what more needs to be done to keep bad actors from accessing nuclear materials. BY LAURA HOLGATE Keeping the World Safe from Nuclear Terrorism
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