The threat of a nuclear attack from either a terrorist group or rogue nation remains a danger, Harvard University professors and terrorism experts said Thursday night at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

“We have open borders, and experts tell us a nuclear weapon could be delivered in a number of ways,” said Kennedy School Dean David Ellwood.

The public will only be able to comprehend the danger of nuclear war if the media focuses more attention on the issue, said Harvard professor and panel member Joseph Nye.

Professor Graham Allison, who led the discussion, said the words of former Secretary of Defense William Perry are one of the best ways to describe the present threat nuclear weapons pose.

“‘We are racing toward unprecedented catastrophe, there is no sense of urgency in the public,'” Allison quoted Perry as saying.

Panel member Alex Jones said Americans would only pay attention to nuclear threats once a nuclear weapon goes off in the United States.

“It is simply not a threat until it happens here,” he said.

Jones also said “threat fatigue” from media saturation of global terrorism works to establish an environment of complacency about the weapons throughout the country.

Harvard professor John Holdren said he does not think the United States has the political capital to unite countries around the world in the fight against nuclear terrorism.

“We need the rest of the world. We cannot do it alone,” he said.

Jessica Cole, staff assistant to Jones, said the United States should re-sign the Nuclear Test Ban treaty to show other countries it does not condone nuclear weapons development.

“The U.S. must sign comprehensive a comprehensive test-ban treaty to show the world that we are willing to work with them on multiple issues, not just the ones in our interests,” Cole said. “The U.S. needs to take the moral high ground and set an example if we want the world to work with us.”