“If we want China to reduce their emissions, they have to find a way to keep using [coal more cleanly].”
– Kelly Sims Gallagher, director of the Belfer Center’s Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group
Read more

“. . . the acquisition decision memorandum ‘directs the Army to identify the most efficient means to end the manned ground vehicle development effort with the least cost to the taxpayer and to use work already completed in any follow-on ground combat vehicle developmental programs.’”

Ashton Carter, on leave from the Belfer Center’s board of director to serve as under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics, released a memo regarding changes to the U.S. Army’s modernization plan on June 23, 2009.

For more, go to: http://www.upi.com/Security_Industry/2009/06/29/Modernizing-the-Armys-modernization-plan/UPI-26191246296107/
_______

“We’ll learn a lot when we withdraw from a small base like this. All kinds of issues arise that will arise when we withdraw from larger bases, for example to whom shall we turn over property? In what state shall we leave the facilities? What should we do with the equipment that is here on the base?”

Carter was also quoted in “U.S. Withdraws from Iraq Cities,” which GlobalPost published on June 29, 2009.

For the full article, go to:
http://www.globalpost.com/print/2192549

“It would be wrong for the Obama administration and Congress to reduce the fiscal stimulus in 2009 or 2010, since there is no clear evidence of a sustained upturn. But it would be equally wrong to allow the national debt to double to 80 per cent of GDP a decade from now.”

Martin Feldstein, a member of the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board and the Belfer Center’s board of directors, wrote “The Fed Must Reassure Markets on Inflation,” which the Financial Times published on June 28, 2009.

For the full oped, go to: http://belfercenter.org/publication/19176/

“. . . even if Mr Brown were to resign tomorrow, the earliest a general election can happen is October; the latest is May next year. This government will be a long time a-dying.”

Niall Ferguson, a member of the Belfer Center’s board of directors, wrote “Do Not Count on the Tories Winning Just Yet,” which the Financial Times published on June 29, 2009.

For the full oped, go to: http://belfercenter.org/publication/19175/

“Of course, banks have had a terrible shock. They do not need telling that subprime mortgages can damage their health. They know that their risk management systems prepared them only for showers, not hurricanes. If they show signs of forgetfulness, at least for the next few years, their investors will remind them.”

John Gieve, a senior fellow with the Belfer Center, wrote “Regulating Banks Calls for Attack on Inertia,” which the Financial Times published on June 28, 2009.

For the full oped, go to: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/19171/

“The sheer power of police and security organizations is not a sufficient explanation of Arab popular passivity, because angry populations around the world have confronted and toppled equally powerful security forces, such as the Shah’s Iran or most of the East European Soviet states.”

Rami Khouri, a senior research fellow with the Belfer Center’s Dubai Initiative and director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs and the American University of Beirut, wrote “Why Do Arabs Not Revolt?” which was released by Agence Global on June 29, 2009.

For the full oped, go to: http://belfercenter.org/publication/19172/

“If you come here with an American CEO mentality, ‘We’re gonna make a plan! We’re gonna do it! Let’s go!’ And give out orders, that is the wrong way to do development in a rural place like this. Because this is their village. They want schools. They want health clinics. They want water. They want businesses. They want jobs. They need to make those choices.”

Greg Carr, a member of the Belfer Center International Council and founder of Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, was interviewed by CBS’ 60 Minutes on June 28, 2009 about the opportunity in Gorongosa, a wildlife park in Mozambique, and his plan to save it.

For the full interview, go to:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/24/60minutes/main4543667.shtml

Iran’s crackdown quiets streets but not anger
Associated Press
June 28
Quoted: Eric Rosenbach, Belfer Center
Topic: Political protests in Iran

Each evening, the protest cries still come from rooftops in Tehran. They began weeks ago as a display of defiance and unity. Now they echo something else: a chorus that bemoans the suffocating crackdown but also signals that the confrontations with Iran’s Islamic regime may be far from over.

A month that began with the world watching the giddy all-night campaign parties for Mir Hossein Mousavi is closing with Iranian forces in full lockdown mode — blanketing the streets, censoring the Web, detaining Mousavi’s backers and showing few hints of compromise after the worst internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. …

The next moves are anyone’s guess. Some experts who have studied civil unrest movements, however, foresee a long and simmering opposition that could splinter into various forms of dissent — such as seeking more political allies, appeals to Germany and other Western nations with financial stakes in Iran and nonviolent disobedience such as sit-ins and general strikes.

“In order to succeed, Mousavi’s followers almost certainly need to take their protests and opposition activities outside Tehran into other Iranian cities where they can outflank security organizations,” said Eric Rosenbach, executive director at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Read More

Republicans see opportunity in U.S. climate bill fight
Reuters
June 29
Quoted: Robert Stavins, Harvard Environmental Economics Program
Topic: Potential effect of cap-and-trade bill on the 2010 congressional elections

Republicans in the U.S. Congress, who warn that climate change legislation is the “biggest job-killing bill” ever, see a bright side: Some people who lose their jobs could be Democrat lawmakers who vote for the bill.

Holding minority status in both the Senate and House of Representatives after a disastrous showing in the 2006 and 2008 elections, Republican leaders think that Democrats might be writing a prescription for a Republican comeback in 2010 by passing a bill instead of curing an energy and environmental problem.

“If the Republicans can frame it as, ‘Oh, the Democrats are once again just trying to raise your taxes, this time with a hidden tax on energy’, then that will probably have substantial appeal to the electorate, particularly if we are still in the throes of a recession,” said Robert Stavins, head of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.

Read More

There They Go Again: Fixing the Primary Process
Washington Post
June 28
Quoted: Elaine Kamarck, Belfer Center
Topic: Improving the process for choosing presidential nominees

Elaine Kamarck was also quoted in the L.A. Times.

There is no end to the complaints about the way the two political parties select their presidential nominees. As the litany goes, the process begins too early, gives undue influence to a handful of small, unrepresentative states and has encouraged a disorderly leapfrogging by other states that has resulted in an unseemly, virtual national primary early in the season.

Over the years, the nominating process has been examined repeatedly by the political parties, by distinguished commissions, by academics and by secretaries of state, all with the goal of building a better mousetrap. Virtually all have resulted in disappointment or unintended consequences. …

At least one student of the process, Elaine Kamarck of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, recommended yesterday that it is time to eliminate superdelegates. Kamarck, author of “Primary Politics,” a forthcoming book on the nominating process, argued that the selection of presidential nominees is now a public process and has eliminated the need for elites who could assert themselves in the equivalent of a back-room role.

She made her case before an audience that included many past and potential superdelegates. The response was skeptical. Instead, the goal of leading members of the DNC panel appears to be a more limited role for superdelegates.

Read More