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Jeffrey Frankel: Food Security: Export Controls are Not the Cure for Grain Price Volatility, But the Cause

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Wait Him Out

Associate Charles Cogan on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

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August 30, 2010

A Katrina 5th Anniversary Success Story

By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications

Five years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, one stand-out recovery success story is the neighborhood of Broadmoor and its unique collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School through the Belfer Center's "Broadmoor Project." While the determined community continues its renewal today, Broadmoor has become a model of disaster recovery efforts for other neighborhoods, cities, and even countries.

AP Photo

August 17, 2010

"Midterm Advice for Congress: Tax Carbon Instead of Jobs"

The Huffington Post

By Robert J. Shapiro and Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy

"To deal with climate change, we have to move our entire economy to low-carbon sources of energy. Tying a carbon fee to lower payroll taxes for workers on a permanent basis can not only take the sting out of what has to be done for the climate, it also can help create thousands of jobs and stimulate more innovation. The current favored approach for climate, cap-and-trade, is dying in the Senate, because its proponents can never guarantee that it won't turn into one more playground for Wall Street traders."

August 2010

"Institutional Support for an International Forest Carbon Sequestration Agreement"

By Liz Baldwin and Kenneth R. Richards

Because forests play a critical role in the global carbon cycle, the international community is actively pursuing policies and programs to increase the amount of carbon stored in forests. Recent estimates suggest that forestry could contribute an average 6.7 billion tons of emissions reductions annually, with over two-thirds of this potential coming from tropical nations. Making full use of the forest carbon sink is appealing to both the developed and the developing world. Developed nations see forest carbon projects as a low-cost option for mitigating climate change. For the developing world, forest carbon payments could provide a sustainable source of much-needed income. At the most recent climate negotiation talks in Copenhagen, even as negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions limits stalled, the parties moved closer to a framework agreement on forest carbon.

The White House

August 16, 2010

"A Reset in the Middle East"

Moscow Times

By Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom and Evgeny Artyukov

The United States and Russia must work together to reverse the deteriorating security situation in the Middle East.  Malin and Artyukov argue that Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev should announce they will co-sponsor a conference to establish ongoing negotiation of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.  The United States and Russia can turn today's Middle East crises into tomorrow's negotiating points, but only if they work together — and stay together for the long term.

AP Photo

August 16, 2010

"Iran-U.S. Challenges of Entering Direct Talks"

Iranian Diplomacy

By Kayhan Barzegar, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program

"Yet, direct strategic talks do not necessarily mean renewed friendship between Tehran and Washington; rather they imply the persuasion of each side to acknowledge the other's role and to reach a compromise on the issue of cohabitation in a region where both have vital national and security interests. Both sides would conclude that continuing in a permanent condition of mutual hostility can only inflict greater damage to their national interests. This would entail an exit from the current state of confrontation to interaction or constructive rivalry, in order to maintain their regional interests. For instance, direct talks between the United States and communist China in 1972 did not result in a friendship."

AP Photo

August 11, 2010

"Tide to be Harnessed"

Boston Herald

By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor

"If the U.S. turned inward and seriously curtailed immigration, there would be consequences for America's position in the world. With its levels of immigration, America is one of the few developed countries that may avoid demographic decline and keep its share of world population, but this might change if reactions to terrorist events or xenophobia closed the borders."

August 9, 2010

Graham Allison Calls for Citizen Follow-up to "Countdown to Zero"

Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

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

The Belfer Center is honored to have a number of our scholars and alumni prominently featured in the film Countdown to Zero. It is a testament to our long-standing commitment to providing leadership in advancing policy-relevant knowledge about the threat of nuclear terrorism and proliferation. Translating words into deeds, however, will require private citizens to take action. For her work in pushing nations around the world to sign a treaty banning land mines, Jody Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997....Someone asked one of my colleagues here at the Center, what would a nuclear Jody Williams do? Colleagues here have developed a list.

AP Images

August 7, 2010

"HP's CEO, Mark Hurd: How Could He Do Something So Stupid?"

The Atlantic Monthly

By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"As with General Stanley McChrystal, Governor Elliot Spitzer, golf icon Tiger Woods and so many others, we are once again scratching our heads and asking about personal indiscretions, not major crimes or core institutional failures, that brought a person low. How could he do something so self-destructive and stupid?"