In coming months, new US President Joe Biden and his advisers will of necessity focus on the most immediate task at hand – quelling the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing its economic impacts. But they will also have to decide how to pursue, in specifics, the many broad goals President Biden set out in his campaign. As is the case with every new US administration, the president and his appointees will be deluged with policy proposals that deal with programs and projects vast and minuscule and that come from every ideological direction imaginable (except perhaps the purely Trumpist; it is hard to imagine the Q-anon, Infowars, and Parler crowds expecting or getting much traction in a Biden administration).
Crafting and implementing detailed policy plans across an organization as large and complex as the US government – while current events throw wrenches into those plans on a regular basis – is a challenge probably not diminished by torrents of unfocused outside advice. So for this issue, which publishes just ahead of the Biden inauguration, I asked top experts to offer their pinpoint-focus suggestions to the president at shorter-than-usual, memo-like length. As befits the Bulletin’s remit, the advice deals with the most important issues that America and the world face, the existential threats of nuclear weapons, climate change, and other disruptive technologies.
The specific advice comes via these articles:
On nuclear risk
Why Biden should abandon the great power competition narrative
By Sharon Squassoni
An ambitious arms control agenda requires a new organization equal to the task
By James E. Goodby and David A. Koplow
How Biden can say goodbye to “America First” on nuclear issues
By Rupal Mehta
Why Biden should push for ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
By Togzhan Kassenova
Biden should rethink US policy on low-yield nuclear weapons
By Dave Zikusoka
How Biden can advance nuclear arms control and stability with Russia and China
By Pranay Vaddi
On climate change
Okay, he’s finally in the Oval Office. But what should Joe Biden do first?
By Bill McKibben
The president needs to hit the ground running on climate
By Michael Mann
Water recommendation for the new administration
By Peter H. Gleick
To build climate progress on time scales that matter, Biden should be Biden
By Andrew Revkin
Climate change should be recognized for what it is: an issue of national security
By Rod Schoonover
On disruptive technologies
How Joe Biden can use confidence building measures to manage the military uses of AI
By Michael C. Horowitz
Dear President Biden: You should save, not revoke, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
By Eric Goldman
How can the Biden administration reduce scientific disinformation? Slow the high-pressure pace of scientific publishing.
By Matt Field
Memo to the president: Reimagining public health preparedness and response
By Daniel M. Gerstein
I hope their brevity and focus will make at least some of these pieces helpful to the president and his advisers, who have so much to do and undo as the nation attempts to right itself after a period of pestilence and mass death.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
John Mecklin
John Mecklin is the editor in chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.