Graham Allison

November 30, 2007

What is a Nuclear Bomb?

Media Feature

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School and Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom; Co-Principal Investigator, Energy Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (ERD3) Policy Project

This is the third in a series of videos on nuclear terrorism based on Graham Allison's book Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe. In this episode, Matthew Bunn, Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s JFK School of Government and author of Securing the Bomb, describes what happens when a nuclear bomb is detonated.

November 30, 2007

A Global Problem

Media Feature

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School, Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom; Co-Principal Investigator, Energy Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (ERD3) Policy Project and Senator Sam Nunn

This is the fourth in a series of videos on nuclear terrorism based on Graham Allison's book Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe. In this episode, former Senator Sam Nunn, Senior Research Associate in the Project on Managing the Atom Matthew Bunn, and Belfer Center Director Graham Allison discuss the global economic impact of a nuclear detonation. No matter where you live, the repercussions of a nuclear bomb going off anywhere in the world will affect those least able to help themselves.

November 30, 2007

Rolling Back Proliferation

Media Feature

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School, Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project (on leave), Harvard & Stanford Universities and Senator Sam Nunn

This is the fifth in a series of videos on nuclear terrorism based on Graham Allison's book Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe. In this episode former Senator Sam Nunn, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter, and U.S. Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns discuss nuclear proliferation and the bold action it will take to make sure that these weapons never end up in the hands of terrorists, criminals or rogue states.

AP Photo

November-December 2007

"Apocalypse When?"

Op-Ed, National Interest

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

In the previous issue of The National Interest, John Mueller argued that the threats from nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism and nuclear war are exaggerated. Rather, we may pose the greatest threat to ourselves: the price we pay for making nuclear weapons the "supreme priority" carries a hefty price in money and in lives. Graham Allison, Joseph Cirincione and William Potter weigh in. Mueller has the last word.

AP Photo

October 29, 2007

"Talking Through a Nuclear Staredown"

Op-Ed

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

"However valid the merits of this position, the brute fact is that Iran is now 16 months further down the road to fulfilling its nuclear ambitions. If Iran is to be stopped without war, Bush will have to summon as much imagination in finding ways to engage Iran now as Kennedy did in resolving the Cuban missile crisis." Graham Allison suggests that today's leaders could learn valuable lessons from the handling of the 1962 missile crisis.

October 2007

Reducing Nuclear Threats and Preventing Nuclear Terrorism

Report

By Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project (on leave), Harvard & Stanford Universities, Dr. William J. Perry, Former Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School, Joseph Cirincione, Thomas E. Donilon, Robert Einhorn, Michele A. Flournoy, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1989-1993, Leon Fuerth, Amb. Robert Gallucci, Ernest Moniz, George Perkovich and Amb. Wendy R. Sherman

This National Security Advisory Group report provides a new comprehensive strategy for reducing nuclear threats and preventing nuclear terrorism.

September 28, 2007

"North Korean Nuclear Accountability Now"

Op-Ed

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

Israel enacted an air-strike against a site in Syria which is reported to have nuclear materials from North Korea days before the the six-party talks in Beijing on North Korea's nuclear program were to continue. The most important and urgent message the US should be sending to Kim Jong Il is that any detonation of a nuclear weapon of North Korean origin in the US—however delivered and by whomever—will be treated as a direct attack by North Korea.

September 20, 2007

Richmond Blast Map

Media Feature

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

September 14, 2007

"Will Bush's Tragedy Trap His Successor in Iraq?"

Op-Ed

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

As the curtain rises for Washington's battle over Iraq, Congressional leaders must reject the role President Bush has scripted for them in his Iraq tragedy. Otherwise, in January 2009, a newly-elected president will find himself or herself waist deep in a quagmire that will dominate their one term presidency.

AP Images

September 11, 2007

"No choice -- withdrawal starts in '08"

Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times

By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School and Brigadier General (ret.) Kevin Ryan, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"What all of this debate about withdrawal missed, however, is that the driver is not conditions in Iraq or politics in the United States but the hard realities of Army and Marine Corps readiness. As the troops' extended 15-month tours of duty end, the Army and Marine Corps simply don't have more troops to replace them. The withdrawal will be, in effect, the flip side of the surge."