PUBLICATIONS
Winter 2009-10
"Featured Fellows - Focus on Research"
Belfer Center Newsletter
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications
Melissa Willard-Foster discusses key components to a lasting peace agreement and Vipin Narang explains Taliban threat to Pakistan nuclear weapons. Willard-Foster is a research fellow with the Belfer Center's International Security Program (ISP) and Narang is a research fellow with the ISP and Project on Managing the Atom.
Winter 2009-10
"Belfer Center Alumni - News and Notes"
Belfer Center Newsletter
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications
This article provides News and Notes featuring several Belfer Center alumni: Stephen Biddle (International Security Program (ISP) research fellow, 1985-1987); Robert Gallucci (ISP research fellow, 1989-1993); Kristin Bakke (Intrastate Conflict Program/ISP research fellow, 2007-2008);and William (Dale) Anderson (ISP research fellow, 2008-2009).
Winter 2009-10
"International Security Journal Highlights"
Belfer Center Newsletter
Among the articles featured in the Fall 2009 Issue of the Belfer Center journal International Security are "Bad Debts: Assessing China's Financial Influence in Great Power Politics" by Daniel W. Drezner, "What's in a Line? Is Partition a Solution to Civil War?" by Nicholas Sambanis and Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl, and "Long Time Going: Religion and the Duration of Crusading" by Michael C. Horowitz. International Security is America's leading journal of security affairs.
November 2009
"Beyond Optimism and Pessimism: The Differential Effects of Nuclear Proliferation"
By Matthew Kroenig, Affiliate, Project on Managing the Atom
Matthew Kroenig examines the effect of the spread of nuclear weapons on international politics. He proposes a theory of nuclear proliferation that examines the differential effects of nuclear proliferation. Kroenig argues that the threat nuclear proliferation poses to a particular state depends on that state’s ability to project military power. This article contributes to our understanding of the consequences of nuclear proliferation and contains important implications for nuclear nonproliferation policy.
November 2009
The Great American Mission: Modernization and the Construction of an American World Order
By David Ekbladh, Research Fellow, International Security Program
The Great American Mission traces how America's global modernization efforts during the twentieth century were a means to remake the world in its own image. David Ekbladh shows that the emerging concept of modernization combined existing development ideas from the Depression. He describes how ambitious New Deal programs like the Tennessee Valley Authority became symbols of American liberalism's ability to marshal the social sciences, state planning, civil society, and technology to produce extensive social and economic change. For proponents, it became a valuable weapon to check the influence of menacing ideologies such as Fascism and Communism.
AP Photo
November 20, 2009
"Why Israel is Safer (from Iran) Than it Might Seem"
The Huffington Post
By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program
Most of the arguments that Iran is a threat to Israel center around Iranian President Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitism and holocaust denial. But he does not make Iranian foreign policy, Khameini does. Khameini has been in office since 1989, throughout the period of relative detente with the West during Khatami's presidency, and through the violent and volatile Ahmadinejad years. Yes, there is evidence that Khameini is a tyrant comfortable sanctioning violence to hold onto power in Iran; no, there is no evidence that he is a psychopath whose hatred of Israel would drive him to order the murder of millions. Yes, there is evidence that he sanctions the sponsorship of anti-Israel terrorism to increase his influence in the region, but no, there is no evidence that he values a confrontation with Israel the reprisal from which would inevitably cause Iranian casualties and threaten the regime's already weak power structure (from within even if not from without).
AP Photo
November 20, 2009
"Reconciliation Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry"
The Huffington Post
By Yvonne Malan, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Intrastate Conflict Program
"The world loved the Rainbow Nation success story and chose, along with many South Africans, to ignore that reconciliation can easily be used to justify impunity. Jansen's description of the Reitz Four, that they too are his children and that he cannot disown them, echoes the mythology of the TRC that perpetrators were sinners who strayed and need to be forgiven (and granted amnesty), not as individuals who broke the law and need to be held accountable. Any serious discussion about rights and responsibility is quickly marginalised, with dangerous implications for any attempts to foster a respect for human rights and a respect for the rule of law."
Fall 2009
"Enabling a Nuclear Revival—and Managing Its Risks"
Innovations, issue 4, volume 4
By 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 Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom
Matthew Bunn and Martin B. Malin examine the conditions needed for nuclear energy to grow on a scale large enough for it to be a significant part of the world’s response to climate change. They consider the safety, security, nonproliferation, and waste management risks associated with such growth and recommend approaches to managing these risks. Bunn and Malin argue that although technological solutions may contribute to nuclear expansion in the coming decades, in the near term, creating the conditions for large-scale nuclear energy growth will require major international institutional innovation.
AP Photo
Fall 2009
"Energy for Change: Introduction to the Special Issue on Energy & Climate Change"
Innovations, issue 4, volume 4
By John P. Holdren, Former Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program
"Without energy, there is no economy. Without climate, there is no environment. Without economy and environment, there is no material well-being, no civil society, no personal or national security. The overriding problem associated with these realities, of course, is that the world has long been getting most of the energy its economies need from fossil fuels whose emissions are imperiling the climate that its environment needs."
AP Photo
November 2009
"Beyond Zero Enrichment: Suggestions for an Iranian Nuclear Deal"
By 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
"Some form of negotiated agreement, if it can be achieved, is the “least bad” option for U.S. interests—but is likely to have to include some continuing enrichment in Iran. There are real security risks in agreeing to permit some ongoing enrichment in Iran, but if appropriately managed, these security risks are less than those created by a military strike or allowing Iran to continue unfettered enrichment with no agreement."
