The Science of Security, a project of the Breakthrough Institute, is dedicated to bringing evidence to ongoing arguments about national security and counterterrorism policy. Since 2009, the project has focused its research in three areas:

• 1) carefully evaluating CT tactics introduced after 9/11 to determine their efficacy;
• 2) developing assessments of terrorist threats comprehensively informed by study of their strategies, tactical proclivities, ideological and psychological motivations, targeting choices, organizational capacities, and practical capabilities; and
• 3) developing securitological theory explaining the long historical trends and recent events suggesting that security is best advanced when states foster respectful relationships with the populations they engage.

Michael Shellenberger

Michael is president and co-founder of Breakthrough Institute. He is co-author with Ted Nordhaus of Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility (Houghton Mifflin 2007). Time magazine called Break Through "prescient" for its prediction that pollution regulations could not transform the global energy economy, and Wired magazine said the book "could be the most important thing to happen to environmentalism since Silent Spring." The book received the 2007 Green Book Award and a starred review from Publishers' Weekly, which called the book "Convincing, resonant, and hopeful." In 2004, Shellenberger and Nordhaus generated a national debate in the pages of the New York Times and around the country when they published "The Death of Environmentalism," which argued against apocalyptic climate rhetoric and the regulation-centered policy approach in favor of an aspirational discourse and an investment and innovation-focused agenda. For their work, Shellenberger and Nordhaus were named Time magazine "Heroes of the Environment 2008". Breakthrough Institute's strategy to "Make Clean Energy Cheap" was the recent subject of a profile on NPR's "Morning Edition." In 2002, Michael co-founded the Apollo Alliance. Michael has written for The New York Times, the the Washington Post, The New Republic, the American Prospect, Salon, Harvard Law and Policy Review (pdf), Democracy, Glamour Magazine and other publications.

Ted Nordhaus

Ted is an author, researcher, and political strategist. He is a widely recognized authority on climate and energy policy and his work has deeply influenced a new generation of clean energy advocates. With co-author Michael Shellenberger, he published the seminal essay "The Death of Environmentalism" in 2004 and the controversial and critically acclaimed Break Through, Why We Can't Leave Saving The Planet To Environmentalists in 2007. Time Magazine named Ted a "Hero of the Environment" in 2008, and dubbed his work "prescient." His writings have appeared widely in magazines, newspapers, and journals including The New Republic, The American Prospect, Salon, and The New York Times among many others. Ted is a founder and chairman of the Breakthrough Institute, a political think tank based in Oakland, California that works at the nexus of climate, energy, and economic policy. He is also managing partner of American Environics, a research and consulting firm that brings cutting edge research and methodologies used to understand the evolution of American social values to progressive political projects.

Nick Adams

Nick is a UC Berkeley sociologist and the former Director of the Science of Security Project at the Breakthrough Institute.