CSCANS History

The Committee on Scientific Communication and National Security (CSCANS), in the Policy and Global Affairs Division, brings together members of the national security community, scientists, and university and corporate leaders to address the oversight and conduct of science at a time of perceptions of increased national security threats.  David Baltimore, President Emeritus and Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology California Institute of Technology, and Brent Scowcroft, President and Founder of the Scowcroft Group, are the co-chairs of the Committee. 

CSCANS was preceded by the Roundtable on Scientific Communication and National Security, which ran from 2003 to 2005.  RSCANS, co-chaired by David Baltimore and former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, was a collaborative project, managed jointly by the National Research Council and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).  CSIS established the related Commission on Scientific Communication and National Security which produced two papers: "Security Controls on the Access of Foreign Scientists and Engineers to the United States," in October 2005 and "Security Controls on Scientific Information and the Conduct of Scientific Research," in June 2005.

In 2005 RSCANS was reconstituted as a standing committee in order to provide a more sustained and proactive commitment to these issues.  David Baltimore and Robert Gates were the co-chairs until Dr. Gates became Secretary of Defense in December 2006.

Currently, CSCANS’ main project is the oversight of a study, “Science, Security and Prosperity in a Changing World.”  The study will examine how globalization and advances in technology have changed science, the economy, and national security. The goal of this study will be to recommend policies and self-regulatory schema that ensure the integrity of the American scientific enterprise and safeguard our national security, while maintaining the flexibility to meet unexpected or rapidly evolving challenges.