Two remarkable women who made invaluable contributions to the work of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) died in recent months: Catherine Kelleher and Jo Husbands. Their accomplishments and qualities have been described well by others, including especially Women in International Security (WIIS) [1]. We at CISAC want additionally to honor their work for us.

From 1987 to 2004, with a four-year hiatus for government service, Kelleher served as a member and then vice chair of CISAC. Husbands was CISAC’s staff director from 1991 to 2004. Both were political scientists who brought great expertise, insight, and dedication, working with scientists and retired military leaders on CISAC’s mission.

These were complex and pivotal times for the world and consequently important times for CISAC. Former members of the Soviet CISAC who rose to influential positions close to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev have described how the National Academy of Sciences’ CISAC introduced and explained to them concepts of arms control and escalation that the Soviets were not aware of, and this affected these Soviet experts’ thinking from there on.

CISAC introduced people, in addition to ideas. For example, shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union, NAS CISAC hosted Soviet CISAC in Omaha, Nebraska, where they met with leaders from U.S. Strategic Air Command. Meeting the people likewise affected thinking going forward. And as an expert on NATO and Soviet and European military affairs, Kelleher was a major force in a group of powerhouses; two members of that group went on to serve as secretary of defense.

As CISAC’s vice chair for dialogues, Kelleher worked with chair John Holdren to establish the India dialogue shortly before India’s 1998 nuclear tests. She also contributed to all of CISAC’s studies while she served. In addition to advancing scholarship and practice in her field, Kelleher advocated strongly for including experts who were women in discussions, debates, and activities, which was needed.

As staff director, Husbands served more quietly but with equal dedication. She worked on all of the dialogues and the studies — from plutonium disposition to U.S. nuclear weapons policy to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to nuclear monitoring. After moving on to the position of scholar in the Board on Life Sciences at the National Academies, working on governance of emerging biotechnology, Husbands continued to be a valued collaborator and developed ideas and opportunities for CISAC. Husbands recognized the power and importance of having natural scientists lead CISAC’s efforts, but she and Kelleher also pushed for the social sciences to be taken seriously in these discussions.

CISAC was founded on the premise that we should talk with our potential adversaries, and that a shared understanding of the reality of our strategic military systems and doctrines, and more broadly a mutual understanding based on science and an evidence-based approach, provide the foundation for agreement on difficult topics. Building on those foundations can result in a recognition of shared interests in risk reduction, arms control, and cooperation. Kelleher and Husbands believed in those premises as bedrock principles and were leaders in these endeavors.

Catherine Kelleher and Jo Husbands did much more beyond CISAC, as noted in remembrances by others. We are grateful for what they did for CISAC and the larger community, and for being great colleagues. We feel honored to have worked with them and to have known them as colleagues and friends.

Micah Lowenthal, CISAC Director

Raymond Jeanloz, CISAC Chair

[1] See https://wiisglobal.org/our-founder/ and the in memoriam section of https://wiisglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2022-Annual-Report.pdf