OP-ED

NEWS

"A Plot Foiled, but a US Agency Rift Exposed"

Juliette Kayyem weights the pros and cons of covert missions in the CIA.

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EVENT

"Safe, Secure and Credible Nuclear Operations"

Seminar w/Lt. Col. Ron Allen. May 15, 10am, Taubman 275.

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AP Photo

May 9, 2012

"China's Soft Power Deficit"

Wall Street Journal

By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor

"The 2008 Olympics was a success abroad, but shortly afterward China's domestic crackdown on human rights activists undercut its soft-power gains. The Shanghai Expo was also a great success, but it was followed by the jailing of Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo. His empty chair at the Oslo ceremony was a powerful symbol. And for all the efforts to turn Xinhua and China Central Television into competitors for CNN and the BBC, there is little international audience for brittle propaganda."

AP Photo

May 10, 2012

"The Hollande effect"

Boston Globe

By R. Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School

Professor Burns discusses President-elect Francois Hollande's dramatic electoral victory and the effects it might have on some of the most important international challenges — the euro zone crisis, Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria.

AP Photo

May 9, 2012

"Lugar's bipartisan spirit helped ensure U.S. security"

GlobalPost

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts — Yesterday was a dark day for the United States. When Richard Lugar lost the Republican primary election, not only did Indiana lose its senator of 35 years, but the nation was deprived of one of its greatest champions of bipartisan leadership on issues of war and peace.

April 30, 2012

Lewis Branscomb Gift Launches New Center for Science and Democracy

Lewis M. Branscomb, director emeritus of the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program and member of the Center’s board of directors, has presented a $1 million gift to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) to help launch a Center for Science and Democracy. Branscomb, the Aetna Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management (emeritus) at Harvard Kennedy School and adjunct professor at the University of California San Diego, is a prominent physicist and intellectual leader on science and policymaking.

May 9, 2012

"Opening the Door to a Solution with Iran"

By Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and David Albright

The recent nuclear talks with Iran in Istanbul represent a significant gain for the United States. These talks have established a step-by-step, or action-for-action, process to prevent Iran increasing its nuclear weapons capabilities and create confidence that Iran is not on a quest for nuclear weapons. However, success is by no means assured.

AP Photo

May 7, 2012

"A Tragedy or Merely Tragic?"

Boston Globe

By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy

"It is a testament to the human rights community that its relevance in global affairs may demand a new vernacular. Major atrocities, and ethnic genocide, are different in scope and magnitude from the plight of a single man. Those familiar slogans — the whole world is watching — are at risk of overuse, and therefore irrelevance, when applied to all things constituting a tragedy and the merely tragic. The Chen case is complicated, but it isn't Bosnia."

AP Photo

May 2, 2012

"Dealing with a Chinese Monroe Doctrine"

New York Times

By Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs; Faculty Chair, International Security Program

"...[W]ar between China and America is far from inevitable. Both countries have nuclear weapons and both governments understand that a war would be catastrophic. If future leaders are prudent, the rivalry may be managed and peace preserved. But if inexperienced, reckless or over-confident leaders come to power on either side, the danger of war will rise. Unfortunately, recent history warns that the likelihood both countries will always have wise leaders is not high."

AP Photo

May 7, 2012

"François Hollande—No More 'Mr. Pudding'?"

Christian Science Monitor

By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program

"Hollande's immediate problem will not be with the US but with Germany — his first foreign destination as president. He has promised to renegotiate a European Union treaty mandating deficit and debt limits. He wants to inject more growth into the pact, but the likely result will be a separate add-on of measures (whose effectiveness remains to be seen), rather than a change in the pact itself (which German Chancellor Angela Merkel firmly opposes)."

2012

Recommendations for Small Light Water Reactor Development in China

China Nuclear Power, issue 1, volume 5

By Yun Zhou, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program

Abstract: This paper summarizes the history and features of advanced small light water reactor (ASWR), and provides recommendations and strategies on ASWR research and development in China. the ASWR can be used in remote power grid and replaces mid/small size fossil plant economically, and thus can be an important part of energy saving and emission reduction policy. the safety and economy characteristic of ASWR are able to effectively expand nuclear energy marekt in emerging countries and developing countries. therefore, ASWR should be considered as a critical part of China's nuclear technology and equipment export strategy.

AP Photo

May 2, 2012

"Merkel Can Achieve Fiscal Union in Europe"

Financial Times

By Niall Ferguson, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Pierpaolo Barbieri, Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy, International Security Program

"Europe's monetary union is neither the joint checking account of a dysfunctional family nor a latter-day gold standard. It was always meant to be a staging post on the road to a federal Europe. Today the biggest threat to its survival is no longer the economic consequences of austerity; it is the political consequences, in the form of populist, anti-European, usually xenophobic fringe parties. Almost everywhere but Germany, such parties are gaining support."