Ben Heineman
Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: 617-496-7305
Fax: 617-495-8963
Email: ben_heineman@harvard.edu
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December 14, 2010
"Don’t Divorce the GC and Compliance Officer"
Op-Ed, Corporate Counsel
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"At the dead center of the GC (and CFO) job is responsibility for adherence to the formal and ethical rules binding the Independence won't guarantee ethical behavior. They must be partners to the CEO, but first and foremost they must be guardians of the company on thethree essentials of compliance: prevent, detect, and respond."
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December 4, 2010
"The Afghan Strategic Review: Speak the Truth About Corruption"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"We don't need to wait six more months or another year to know how cancerous corruption is to American strategy -- or how difficult to treat. Everyone talks about listening to the generals on the ground on military matters. Well, on the question of corruption, the cables have given us insight into what the civilian and military officials on the ground are telling Washington."
AP Photo
December 4, 2010
The Afghan Strategic Review: Speak the Truth About Corruption
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The leaked diplomatic cables from Afghanistan show deep and pervasive corruption. So what else is new? Other than having this conclusion candidly expressed by American officials who thought they were writing private dispatches. The much more important question today is: What is the United States going to do about it? Much of the writing about the cable leaks has focused on the vivid official descriptions of corruption, but not on whether those descriptions are going to cause an official rethink of our Afghan strategy. They should.
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November 29, 2010
"Rereading 'Ulysses' by James Joyce: The Best Novel Since 1900"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Joyce set out to create life in all its fullness without heroic scenes or gestures or declamations but through a fully realized expression of a city and its people on one typical day-and through ironic puncturing of human pomposity and pretense. Despite its reputation as a difficult read, many of the chapters or important passages in Ulysses are accessible to a regular reader who is not a candidate for a PhD."
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November 11, 2010
"Armistice Day: The Forgotten Fields of Flanders"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"After World War II, Armistice Day became Veterans Day to honor the dead from another tumultuous conflict. But many people were still of an age when World War I was a living memory. Then, over time, Memorial Day, which had its origins in the American Civil War, became the main national holiday commemorating all our fallen soldiers. Today, Veterans Day is an excuse for merchants to hawk their wares. "Veterans Day Sale, 25% to 50% Off Storewide" shouted the Macy's full-page ad in The New York Times."
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October 24, 2010
"The Afghan Black Hole: Governance and Corruption"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Addressing governance and corruption in a failed state like Afghanistan would be enormously challenging if they were "just" issues of development, but the "development" of Afghanistan, of course, takes place in the midst of a fierce civil war and intense regional rivalries and interference under what most experts consider a wholly unrealistic deadline (progress by next summer).
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October 18, 2010
"Truth and the Art of 'The Social Network'"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"So,for me, one of the more interesting questions raised by the film is whether works of entertainment or art presenting themselves as real accounts of contemporary events owe fidelity, not just to story-telling, but also to a search for truth in a journalistic or historical sense. Certainly some of Sorkin's own statements suggest that he didn't want The Social Network just to be story-telling. And, if that is so, then he had an obligation to get closer to the facts."
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October 2, 2010
"European Rejection of Attorney-Client Privilege for Inside Lawyers"
Op-Ed, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"The most striking aspect of the ECJ decision is its failure to understand the reality of contemporary law practice and its failure to adduce any facts to support its sweeping conclusions. Let me focus on its most egregious failings."
September 29, 2010
"Deciding in a state of ignorance"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Bob Woodward's new book on the Obama White House portrays a president so frustrated with top military advisers for their refusal to provide what he considered a reasonable exit strategy from Afghanistan that he devised one himself. How should leaders reconcile the laudable instinct to rely on the advice of experts with the sometimes urgent need to force them to think outside the box?"
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September 16, 2010
"No Cure for the Cancer of Health Care Costs"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"The ever more conservative Republicans want to slash government programs (and the increased coverage) over the dead bodies of the Democrats. And the Democrats want to constrain insurance premiums and profit-maximizing in the private sector over the dead bodies of the Republicans. A bipartisan attempt to find the right combination of systemic productivity gains, meaningful competition and appropriate budgeting has receded far over the horizon."
