April 12, 2016

"Brexit and the Balance of Power"

Arab News

By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor

"In addition to a revival of Scottish separatism, Britain's inward turn in recent years could accelerate. And over the longer run, the effects on the global balance of power and the liberal international order — in which Britain has a strong national interest — would be negative."

April 11, 2016

"Addressing Japanese Atrocities"

OUPblog

By Zachary D. Kaufman, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, International Security Program

"Some may argue that the US government bears no moral responsibility, as it did not directly participate in this human experimentation. But the United States declined to hold many of the perpetrators accountable, and benefited materially as well. US government officials were interested in the potential utility of the work of Ishii and other Japanese, however unethical, to the US military. Senior American officials felt that obtaining data from the experiments was more valuable than bringing those involved to justice, because the information could be used to advance the US government’s own weapons development program."

April 7, 2016

"Obama Was Not a Realist President"

Foreign Policy

By Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs; Faculty Chair, International Security Program

"...[A]fter seven-plus years in office, this most articulate of presidents never articulated a clear and coherent framework identifying what those vital interests are and why and spelling out how the United States could advance broader political ideals at acceptable cost and risk."

Creative Commons

April 6, 2016

"How Candidates Can Capture the 'Security Moms'"

CNN.com

By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

"Clinton, Sanders and down-ballot Democrats have the capacity to win the Security Moms away from Republicans by embracing them and acknowledging that the Democratic Party's approach to security — maintaining international alliances, criticizing the scapegoating of Muslim communities and supporting first responders — is successful."

(Marc Nozell CC)

April 7, 2016

"Who Wants an Abortion?"

The Huffington Post

By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program

"Although he later backtracked (or tried to), Donald Trump's statement that only women should be punished for having an abortion may finally have jolted the American people into a perception that we could have a possible wacko president in the offing....Whoever would make such an absurd and unfeeling statement about women might well have something wrong with himself."

Creative Commons

March 24, 2016

"The Mouse That Roared—Once Too Often"

By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program

"The United States, certainly the Democratic side, has simply had it with Netanyahu's policies on the Palestinian issue, with his double talk, and with what appears to be an intentional attempt to bury the two-state solution. If the premier truly understands the United States, he knows that a moment of reckoning on the Palestinian issue is nearing and that whichever candidate is elected will likely present us with fateful decisions, or cool the tenor of relations."

March 16, 2016

"Views from the Ground on the A-10 Debate"

War on the Rocks

By Jacquelyn Schneider and Julia Macdonald, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program

"The bigger concern about the future of CAS is perhaps not whether the F-35 is as capable a platform as the A-10 (see, for example efforts to replace the A-10 with low-end CAS alternatives). Instead, it is whether the Air Force's move towards multi-mission platforms in general is a deliberate shift away from supporting ground troops with an exclusive platform, meaning CAS as we know it could retire with the A-10."