Charles G. Cogan
Associate, International Security Program
Contact:
Telephone: 617-864-3959
Email: chuck_cogan@harvard.edu
Website: http://www.drcharlesgcogan.net
January 11, 2013
"Mainstream Support of Hagel: Is This a Crack in the Wall of Intimidation?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Does all this represent a crack in the wall of intimidation, to use the word of Mr. Hagel to Mr. Miller? Will the message get through to Benjamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman, et al to stop interfering in the American political process?"
January 8, 2013
"The End Game: Taking the Bet of Pascal"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"The reasoning of Pascal is the following: in the absence of any proof of the existence of God, reason does not indicate to us whether to believe in Him or not. Since the choice is free, it is reasonable to lean, by calculation, against agnosticism: in effect, to decide to believe in God and live in consequence of that decision. If one leads a life in conformity with a belief in God, this guarantees inestimable benefits if it is revealed, after death, that God exists — and costs nothing if he does not exist. Whereas agnosticism, in the latter case, does not bring any benefits, and on the other hand it is met with infernal punishment if God indeed does exist. Thus, it is rational to put faith in a belief in God and to lead a life that conforms to it."
December 31, 2012
"Still in the Dark"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Torture was not the key element of information in the operation that led to the killing of bin Laden. But we still don't know the whole story. We're still in the dark. And there may be good security reasons for that to remain so."
December 21, 2012
"Not-So-Special Providence"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"The events of Dec. 14 at Newtown, Conn., were particularly horrific; for if a teenager is cut down or otherwise dies, he or she at least has had a taste of life. These were very little children — all of them beautiful, as President Obama said in his initial statement after the tragedy."
December 11, 2012
"The Iranian Nuclear Negotiations: What's Been the Blockage"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Suspicion on both sides — Iranian and American — is extremely high. Iranian fear of American-sponsored regime change may seem unrealistic in today's world, but the fact is that Iran was the victim of an American regime change back in 1953."
December 3, 2012
"Not Even an Itsy-Bitsy Step"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Israel demonstrated once more, implicitly, that it does not favor a two-state solution. It also demonstrated once more that it has no strategic vision as to how to end its 45-year-old occupation of the Palestinian territories. And while it calls on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table 'without preconditions,' while it continues to build settlements in these territories...."
November 28, 2012
"'We Must Have the Greatest Immorality, and We Must Have the Greatest Morality'"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Hugh Cunningham, the schoolmasterish Director of Training, who presented us a formula which, though it has a certain starry-eyed quality of the early CIA, has stuck in my mind ever since: 'We must have the greatest immorality, and we must have the greatest morality.' By which Cunningham meant that we must exercise immorality (for what can otherwise be immorality than persuading a person to betray his country), but in our personal life we must exhibit the highest standards of morality."
AP Photo
November 19, 2012
"Syria: Would Putin Pull a 'Pristina'?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Might Putin, if Bashar's regime became more threatened, be tempted to pull another Pristina? — the moment in 1999 when Russian troops, in support of their Serbian allies, sent a column in to occupy Pristina airport, in Kosovo. The Supreme Allied Commander (SACEUR), Wesley Clark, was in favor of blocking the runway against Russian reinforcements, but the leading British military officer in place there, Michael Jackson, countermanded Clarke, and a potentially dangerous East-West confrontation was avoided."
November 9, 2012
"An Election Retrospective: Pessimists Are Never Disappointed"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"As a coastal American and a member of the (misnamed) blue states, and what is more, the epicenter of abolitionism — Massachusetts; as a former white officer in a black Army unit at the twilight of segregation; as a second son, in principle not destined to wear the crown and therefore less establishment-oriented: my heart was with President Obama throughout the recent election campaign."
October 2012
"Italian Lake District: Historical Markers"
Op-Ed
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
We also visited Stresa...on Lake Maggiore, where...in 1935, on a nearby island known as Isola Bella, the three Western leaders, Ramsay McDonald of Britain, Pierre Laval of France, and Mussolini, signed a pact known as the "Front of Stresa," in opposition to a threatened anchluss (absorption) of Austria by Germany, in opposition to changes in the Versailles Treaty, and in support of the pact of Locarno (farther north in the Swiss part of Lake Maggiore) where in 1925, France, Germany, Belgium, Britain, and Italy came to a series of agreements. The first three pledged not to go to war, and the latter two acted as guarantors. But by the mid-1930s, Adolf Hitler had come to power in Germany and much of Europe had begun to run after him as the most powerful leader on the Continent. Mussolini was to follow suit.
