“The decision making process that led to the surge in Iraq began with a review of the assumptions upon which our strategy had previously been based. It found that most of those assumptions were no longer valid and therefore it pointed to the necessity of changing the strategy in some fundamental ways. Today I would say President Obama has to look at these assumptions and determine the relationships between certain realities on the ground.”

Meghan O’Sullivan, Kirkpatrick professor of the practice of international affairs and member of the Belfer Center’s board of directors, was interviewed for Harvard Kennedy School Insight, which is currently featured on the HKS homepage.

For the full interview, go to: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/publications/insight/international/meghan-osullivan

Thomas Hegghammer, an associate of the Belfer Center’s Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, will discuss the status of al Qaeda this afternoon, November 12, 2009, from 3-3:30 p.m. on CNN’s “Amanpour.”

For more on the show and where you can watch, go to: http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/amanpour/

Kevin Ryan, senior fellow at the Belfer Center, will discuss the shooting at Fort Hood tonight, November 9, 2009, at 7 p.m. on WGBH TV’s “Greater Boston with Emily Rooney.”

For more on the show and where you can watch, go to: http://www.wgbh.org/greater_boston/index.cfm

“The administration earlier this year forecast that the economy would grow next year by 3.5 percent, then by 4 percent, then by 4.5 percent after that. I think that’s highly unlikely to happen. My guess is that the economy will grow in real terms at closer to 2 percent a year for the next few years.”

Niall Ferguson, a member of the Belfer Center’s board of directors, was interviewed on “The Charlie Rose Show” on November 3, 2009.

For the full interview, go to: http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/247

“[W]hat I hope is that … they will learn this was a period when the large interconnected systems that undergirded the modern economy got much stronger – healthcare, education, energy – and when the protections that were forced by modernity with respect to a strengthened system of financial regulation, with respect to a global environment, got put in place. That’s what I hope my grandchildren will learn when they study the history of this period.”

Lawrence Summers, on leave from the Belfer Center’s board of directors to serve as director of the National Economic Council, was interviewed by Maria Bartiromo at the “First Draft of History” conference, which the Atlantic, Aspen Institute, and Newseum hosted, on October 2, 2009.

For highlights from the interview, go to:
http://firstdraftofhistory.theatlantic.com/analysis/post.php

“It’s possible that Iraq could be in the government formation period for maybe five months and in that case it could be a very precarious environment to begin rapidly withdrawing U.S. troops.”

Meghan O’Sullivan, a member of the Belfer Center’s board of directors and Harvard Kennedy School’s Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of International Affairs, was interviewed on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier,” which aired on October 1, 2009.

For the full interview, go to: http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=10272354&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/specialreport/

“You ought to be potentially worried about inflation…the administration is perfectly conscious of the fact that they’ve got a problem….they say, our hands are tied, we can’t do anything now, unemployment is close to 10%, the economy is weak, there isn’t any apparent inflation problem at the moment, prices are nice and stable. But we’ve got that budget deficit….We’ve got to be careful about this. But it’s a problem for at least a year out, two years out, three years out.”

Paul Volcker, chair of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and a member of the Belfer Center International Council, was interviewed on “The Charlie Rose Show” on September 29, 2009.  The second part of the interview will air on October 8, 2009.

For the full interview, go to: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10631

“This is something that takes a tremendous amount of understanding. What I’m really telling people is the greatest risk we can accept is to lose the support of the people here…If the people are against us, we cannot be successful. If the people view us as occupiers and the enemy, we can’t be successful and our casualties will go up dramatically.”

General Stanley McChrystal, top commander in Afghanistan and former Harvard Kennedy School national security fellow (1996-’97), was interviewed on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on September 27, 2009.

For the full interview, go to:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5345009n&tag=related;photovideo

“President Obama has offered to talk unconditionally. He’s not asked for anything to be done about the Iranian government before our negotiators get to the table in Geneva, and we’ll see if engagement does change Iranian behavior. I, frankly, am skeptical.”

Nicholas Burns, a member of the Belfer Center’s board of directors, was interviewed in “Iran to Sit down with Six World Powers in Geneva” on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on September 30, 2009.

For the full interview, go to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113333286
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“At home, the president’s conservative critics charge that his engagement policy has been naive, arguing the United States should return to a more confrontational strategy based on military force.  They could not be more mistaken.”

Burns also wrote “Obama’s Opportunity in Iran,” which the Boston Globe published on October 1, 2009.

For the full oped, go to: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/19606/

“There’s no option for an American invasion now – we don’t have the forces and there would be no public support for that.  There is, at least in theory, the option of air strikes by the United States conceivably, also by Israel.  But those don’t solve the nuclear problem, they just delay it for a few years.”

Stephen Walt, faculty chair of the Belfer Center’s International Security Program and a member of the Center’s board of directors, was interviewed on WGBH’s “Greater Boston with Emily Rooney” on September 30, 2009.

For the full interview, go to: http://www.wgbh.org/greater_boston/index.cfm#