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ANALYSIS

LATEST NEWS

Countdown to Zero

The film, which draws upon Belfer Center research and features interviews with Center faculty and fellows, is now open in select cities. It focuses on the reality of nuclear danger in today's world, making an urgent case for securing nuclear materials against terrorists.

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AP Photo

July 26, 2010

"The Armageddon Test: To Prevent Nuclear Terrorism, Follow the Uranium"

Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"While the total amount of material that has been recovered and publicly disclosed is not sufficient to make a nuclear weapon, the matter is deadly serious. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, none of the recovered nuclear material was reported missing by its owners. Incredibly, none of these cases has been sufficiently investigated to determine the origin, destination, and all those responsible for the theft of the material."

AP Photo

July 23, 2010

"Inscrutable Face of Egypt's Future"

Washington Times

By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program

"Now or in the not-distant future, we will face the question of Egypt's course in the post-Mubarak era. Will his son, Gamal, the most likely successor, or some general from the ruling junta, succeed in gaining and retaining power, in which case Egypt's policies presumably will continue as known? Or will there be a battle for power, with the radical Muslim Brotherhood, the only opposition of consequence, the likely winner?"

White House Photo/Pete Souza

July 22, 2010

Nuclear Energy and the Global Energy Crisis — U.S.-Russian Cooperation Can Help

The Hill

By Evgeny Velikhov and Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom; Co-Principal Investigator, Energy Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (ERD3) Policy Project

Russia, the United States and other countries must cooperate to enable large-scale growth of nuclear energy around the world while achieving even higher standards of safety, security and nonproliferation than are in place today. This will require building a new global framework for nuclear energy, including new or strengthened global institutions.  A U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement with Russia is a necessary step in this process and deserves strong congressional support.

AP Photo

July 12, 2010

"The Dollar and the Dragon"

The Journal of Turkish Weekly

By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor

"Judging whether economic interdependence produces power requires looking at the balance of asymmetries, not just at one side of the equation. In this case, interdependence has created a "balance of financial terror" analogous to the Cold War, when the US and the Soviet Union never used their potential to destroy each other in a nuclear exchange."

AP Photo

Summer 2010

"Armageddon and the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism"

InFocus, issue 2, volume IV

By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program

"Nuclear terrorism poses a unique threat not only because of the magnitude of the destruction, but because those most likely to perpetrate an attack may be fundamentally nihilistic and therefore undeterrable — prepared to pay any cost in loss of life in pursuit of their objectives. As millennial movements for whom the crippling and even destruction of the U.S. and Israel are sacred missions, a nuclear terrorist attack where even a devastating response is assumed may be a worthy means of ushering in a messianic era."

AP Photo

Summer 2010

"Pyongyang’s Survival Strategy: Tools of Authoritarian Control in North Korea"

International Security, issue 1, volume 35

By Daniel Byman and Jennifer Lind

Speculation about the future of the North Korean regime has been intense for nearly two decades, yet Kim Jong-il's hold on power appears more secure than many believe. Several theories of authoritarian control help to explain how Kim Jong-il and his family have remained in power and how this might change over time.

(AP Photo/Hans Punz)

July 1, 2010

IAEA’s Olli Heinonen to Join Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center

By Sasha Talcott, Former Director of Communications and Outreach

Olli Heinonen, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the world's leading outside expert on Iran's nuclear program, will join Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a Senior Fellow this fall.

July 7, 2010

"A De Facto Partition for Afghanistan"

Politico

By Robert D. Blackwill, International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

The Obama administration's counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan seems headed for failurewrites Ambassador Robert Blackwill. Given the alternatives, de facto partition of Afghanistan is the best policy option available to the United States and its allies, he believes.