Security Studies Media
See also: Podcasts from May 14th Question Time: Perspectives on 'The War on Terror'¦
Bill Durodie
15:58, Fri 9 May 2008
Obsessions with the Unknown When former US Secretary of State for Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, warned of the dangers lurking within the 'unknown unknowns' at a press conference in 2002, he was using an increasingly common argument - widely advocated by environmental campaigners before him - that the risks we should really worry about are those that we don't even know we know nothing about. Is this line of argument fruitful for risk management processes or is society in danger of paralysing policy and action through its growing focus on uncertainty and ignorance?
(MP3 format, 20 MB)