Graham Allison

April 5, 2013

"Obama's Nuclear Vision - or Illusion?"

Op-Ed, Boston Globe

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

"Four years ago today, President Obama gave his first speech abroad. In Prague, he announced a bold vision for a “world without nuclear weapons.” Four years on, it is fair to ask: How is that working out? Assessing all the positives, and all the negatives, are we closer to the president’s aspiration — or further from it?"

Spring 2013

"From the Director"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

"The strategic partnership between Harvard and China is unique among universities of the world," writes Belfer Center Director Graham Allison, "this relationship is reflected in decades of scholarship in Cambridge, tens of thousands of Chinese graduates of Harvard graduate and executive programs, and the policies of both governments that have brought us to this point."

(AP File Photo)

March 28, 2013

"'Star Wars' Today: What would Reagan do?"

Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

"President Reagan stunned fellow citizens and the world 30 years ago this month with a dramatic announcement that the United States would develop and deploy a system capable of intercepting and destroying strategic ballistic missiles." For Reagan, Graham Allison writes, "this was an essential steppingstone to his even grander vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. [To] persuade America's Cold War adversary to eliminate its superpower nuclear arsenal as well, Reagan proposed to share this SDI technology with Moscow."

AP Images

February 12, 2013

"North Korea's Lesson: Nukes for Sale"

Op-Ed, New York Times

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

THE most dangerous message North Korea sent Tuesday with its third nuclear weapon test is: nukes are for sale. Graham Allison writes in the New York Times that the real significance of North Korea's overnight nuclear test is that this particular test was, in the estimation of American officials, most likely fueled by highly enriched uranium, not the plutonium that served as the core of North Korea’s earlier tests. "Testing a uranium-based bomb would announce to the world — including potential buyers — that North Korea is now operating a new, undiscovered production line for weapons-usable material."

AP Images

December 10, 2012

"The Coming Clash Over Iran"

Op-Ed, National Interest

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School and Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Graham Allison and Shai Feldman write that while the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government were largely on the same page during the Gaza crisis, "much greater turbulence in their relations can be expected by the middle of next year when the issues associated with Iran’s nuclear project will likely reach another crescendo."

Winter 2012-2013

From the Director

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

As in October 1962, this fall’s 50^th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded against the backdrop of a national election. The electoral stakes were even higher this year with the presidency in play, not just midterm Congressional races. So it seemed appropriate for the Belfer Center to take the anniversary as a learning moment for politicians and policy-makers, not just for students and scholars.

AP Photo

October 15, 2012

"Fifty years after Cuban missile crisis: closer than you thought to World War III"

Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

Graham Allison writes that fifty years after the Cuban missile crisis, many people find it hard to believe that the confrontation could have pushed the U.S. and Soviet Union to nuclear war. Robert F. Kennedy’s newly released papers remind us why this was the most dangerous moment in recorded history.

“My fellow Americans, with a heavy heart, and in necessary fulfillment of my oath of office, I have ordered – and the United States Air Force has now carried out – military operations with conventional weapons only, to remove a major nuclear weapons build-up from the soil of Cuba.” Allison writes that these are the words President Kennedy almost delivered in October 1962.

AP Photo/Gali Tibbon

October 12, 2012

"Why Netanyahu Backed Down"

Op-Ed, New York Times

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School and Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

FOR three years Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defense minister, Ehud Barak, seemed to be united in urging an early military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. But last week that alliance collapsed, with Mr. Netanyahu accusing Mr. Barak of having conspired with the Obama administration, in talks behind his back.

October 11, 2012

"Red Lines in the Sand"

Op-Ed, Foreign Policy

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

In a new Foreign Policy op-ed, Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, writes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been campaigning so virulently for President Obama to draw stricter red lines regarding Iran’s nuclear program because of “his knowledge that Israel and the United States have been complicit in a process of drawing red lines they say Iran will never be allowed to cross, watching Iran cross those lines, and then retreating to declare the next obstacle on the path to a bomb to be the real red line.”

October 9, 2012

"Did Bibi's bomb bomb?"

Op-Ed, Haaretz

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School

Netanyahu’s cartoon oversimplified the Iranian nuclear threat. That should not, however, cause us to miss the central message he was attempting to send.