William H. Tobey

AP Images

November 23, 2010

"Peninsula of Fear"

Op-Ed, City Journal

By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"The Yongbyon revelations have prompted intense debate within policy circles about North Korea's capabilities and intentions-for instance, about whether North Korea was able to build the new enrichment facility without foreign help and about what it intends to do with this plant and more broadly, with its nuclear program. Some hope that Pyongyang wants to use the facility as a bargaining chip and that it may scale back its program to get sanctions lifted and secure normal relations with the U.S. and other nations. But more officials take the pessimistic view that Pyongyang unveiled the new facility to persuade Washington and its allies to accept North Korea as a member of the nuclear-weapons club."

AP Images

September 9, 2010

"Avoiding a lose-lose situation with Iran"

Op-Ed, Foreign Policy

By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"The latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran's nuclear program is circulating in Vienna among governments, but has not yet been released officially. While couched in the calm tones of international civil servants, the report's message is unmistakable: Iran continues its steady march towards nuclear weapon capabilities, and no recent progress has been made in halting it."

AP Photo

July 26, 2010

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

Op-Ed, 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

June 23, 2010

Extending the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction

Media Feature

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School, Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom and William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

The G-8 meeting in Canada this weekend is expected to extend the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction for another 10 years with a further commitment of funding, and to make its focus more global.

AP Images

May 16, 2010

"Stand Up to Iran at the Nonproliferation Review Conference"

Op-Ed, Foreign Policy

By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"The stakes for the review are high, because the Treaty is under assault by North Korea, which withdrew from it in 2003 and later conducted two nuclear tests; Syria, which built a covert nuclear reactor with North Korean help; and Iran, which violated its Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency by constructing its own once-secret facilities."

AP Photo

April 14, 2010

Assessing Obama's Nuclear Security Summit: Takeaways from Experts at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center

Media Feature

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School, Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom, 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

President Obama's first-ever Nuclear Security Summit, which brought nearly 40 heads of state to Washington, D.C., this week, was an unprecedented opportunity to focus global leaders' attention on the threat of nuclear terrorism. Experts from Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs offer their takeaways from the Summit and what to do next.

AP Images

April 14, 2010

"Relentless Focus Needed to Fight Nuclear Terror"

Op-Ed, AOL News

By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"Obama demanded the attention of world leaders to this critical issue by bringing them to Washington, but the success of his summit will depend on how they respond after they return home."

AP Images

April 7, 2010

"It's Folly Not to Update Nuclear Arsenal"

Op-Ed, CNN.com

By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"Indeed, the 2010 Posture Review cites nuclear terrorism as the foremost threat we face. We now require and can design greater margins for safety and security. Refusing even to consider designs that might respond to these developments is breathtakingly Luddite. The tools of science are fundamental to nuclear safety and security; ruling out new designs is the triumph of ideology over science."

AP Images

February 4, 2010

"Iran unfolds its fist to slap us in the face"

Op-Ed, Boston Globe

By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"Neither Russia nor China sees a nuclear armed Iran as a threat. All other things being equal, they might prefer Tehran's ayatollahs not to control nuclear weapons, but all other things are not equal. Beijing wants access to oil and gas. Moscow wants to rebuild a geostrategic position in the Middle East, sell conventional arms and nuclear reactors to Iran, and foster a regional power capable of standing up to the United States.

If key administration assumptions about Iran have proven false, what now?"

AP Images

November 10, 2009

"Afghanistan is Neither Vietnam nor Iraq"

Op-Ed, Foreign Policy

By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"Afghanistan has little in common with either Vietnam or Iraq in terms of history, geography, culture, or politics. There is, however, a more apt analogy, and it involves the very area in dispute."