[4][5] Previously, he served as a project director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment from 1982 to 1985, where he worked on a study of the U.S.'s ability to communicate with its strategic forces.
[9] He was co-founder of Global Zero, an international non-partisan group consisting of 300 world leaders, over 150 student chapters and millions of supporters worldwide dedicated to achieving the elimination of nuclear weapons.
[10] Blair was an expert on United States and Russian security policies, specializing in nuclear forces and command and control systems.
In 1999, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship Prize for his research, work and leadership on de-alerting nuclear forces.
Blair's expertise helped make nuclear and global affairs issues accessible to the public in various media outlets.
He was the author of numerous books and articles on security issues in such publications as Scientific American, National Interest, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
[24] In 2002 Blair said he had told former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (1961-1968) the previous month that the secret codes (called "Permissive Action Links”) required to launch Minuteman missiles had all been set to OOOOOOOO.