Meghan L. O'Sullivan
Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: 617-496-4308
Fax: 617-495-8963
Email: meghan_osullivan@ksg.harvard.edu
Muzaffar Salman - AP Photo
February 22, 2012
"Sanctions Alone Won’t Topple Syria’s Assad"
Op-Ed, Bloomberg View
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
On Feb. 24, the U.S., European nations, members of the Arab League and other sympathetic countries making up the newly established “Friends of Syria” group will gather in Tunisia for an emergency meeting on how to stem the bloodshed in Syria. Their deliberations are almost certain to involve calls for more crippling sanctions to bring about regime change and debates over providing military support to the fractured opposition groups inside the country.
Hadi Mizban
December 20, 2011
"Troops Are Gone but Iraq War Is Not ‘Over’"
Op-Ed, Bloomberg View
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
While Americans have been welcoming the “end” of the war in Iraq over the past few days, a political crisis of serious proportions has been unfolding in Baghdad.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
October 28, 2011
"The Problem With Obama's Decision to Leave Iraq"
Op-Ed, Foreign Affairs
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
In April 2008, Ryan Crocker, who was then the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told Congress, "In the end, how we leave and what we leave behind will be more important than how we came." Given President Barack Obama's announcement last Friday that all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year, it is more important than ever to answer Crocker's implicit question about what, exactly, Washington will be leaving in its wake.
(AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)
September 9, 2011
"Why U.S. troops should stay in Iraq"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
"As America looks back on this 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the war in Iraq looms large — and usually not in a good way," writes Meghan O'Sullivan. "At best, it’s regarded as a distraction, a needless conflict that took America’s focus away from Afghanistan and al-Qaeda. At worst, the Iraq war is decried as a fiasco, the United States’ 'greatest strategic disaster,' as retired Gen. William Odom, the former National Security Agency director, once put it."
July 2011
"Iraqi Politics And Implications For Oil And Energy"
Paper
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Iraq could be poised for a dramatic transformation in which it finally escapes the political and technical constraints that have kept it producing less than 4 percent of the world’s oil, writes Meghan L. O'Sullivan. Should Iraq meet its ambitions to bring nearly 10 million more barrels of oil on line by 2017, it would constitute the largest ever capacity increase in the history of the oil industry. Even half this much would represent a massive achievement.
AP Photo
April 1, 2011
Will Libya become Obama's Iraq?
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
In making his case this past week for the use of force in Libya, President Obama sought to assure the American people that this intervention is prudent and wise, and that it bears no resemblance to the controversial and costly war in Iraq... Given the most obvious differences between Iraq and Libya — no ground troops in Libya and no U.N. resolution in Iraq — few will take issue with Obama's protestation. Yet, Obama's road in Libya may prove more similar to President George W. Bush's than it now appears.
AP Photo
March 7, 2010
"After Iraq's election, the real fight"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Iraq is on much sounder footing today than it was in 2005 or 2006. Yet once again, after Sunday's parliamentary elections, the country is probably in store for long negotiations over who will share power in the new government -- a battle that could strain Iraq's fledgling political institutions and complicate the planned drawdown of U.S. forces.
AP Photo
July 21, 2009
"Issues Before Identity in Iraq"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
After six months of a stance perceived by many Iraqis as "hands off," the administration appears to have realized that political engagement is most important when a military presence is waning. Yet recent comments by Vice President Biden suggest that U.S. officials' mind-set toward Iraq could do as much harm as good.
Photo by Sharon Wilke
May 15, 2009
The Geopolitics of Energy Seminar Series
Media Feature
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Understanding how energy shapes the grand strategies of China, Russia, India, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and others is vital in mapping out the contours of the future global order. These seminars are the basis for identifying possible new nodes of international conflict and cooperation, and deficiencies in existing international structures. The seminars also draw attention to geopolitical problems that could arise as the United States and other countries make energy more central in their plans, as well as well as highlight the geopolitical implications of possible shifts away from fossil fuels. Watch videos of the seminars online.
AP Photo
May 6, 2009
Case Study: The Rise of China and the Global Economic Crisis
Memorandum
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School and Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
U.S.-Chinese relations have remained on a fairly consistent trendline over the decades since Beijing started its policy of reform and opening. Chinese leaders have emphasized their commitment to economic growth über alles, characterizing China's emergence as a "peaceful rise," and restraining expansionist political ambitions in the region and beyond. American leaders have sought to entice China into the existing order through the global trading system and other international institutions, while hedging against the country's increasing might.
