Attention to Afghanistan: Rory Stewart (right), director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights, and member of the Belfer Center’s Board of Directors, makes a point about U.S. policy in Afghanistan while Joseph Nye looks on.
Belfer Center

"From the Director"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Summer 2009

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

"Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist... Soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil." -- John Maynard Keynes

Ideas matter-rarely more so than in times of crisis or at hinges of history.  While no one would dismiss Keynes as "defunct," or the global leaders currently embracing his prescriptions as "exempt from any intellectual influence," Keynes' central point is surely right.  It is ideas that count-for good, or evil.

For a Center committed to advancing policy-relevant knowledge about the most important international challenges, the current avalanche of seemingly insurmountable challenges is a time of great excitement.  To cite but one example, sparks from this year's International Council meeting are still flying from Paul Volcker (chair of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board) and Marty Feldstein's (a member of that Committee as well as of the Center's Board)  candid assessments of the current state of the global economic crisis and the ongoing struggle to address this challenge.

Several dozen members of the Center's core staff and immediate family of recent fellows have been chosen by President Obama to join the new administration's team.  To name but a few: the chief White House Economic Advisor (Larry Summers) and Science Advisor (John Holdren), two Under Secretaries at the Department of Defense (Ash Carter and Michele Flournoy), Kurt Campbell at State, Rand Beers and Juliette Kayyem at the Department of Homeland Security, and Samantha Power, Liz Sherwood-Randall, and Gary Samore at NSC.

Similarities between policies proposed by the Obama administration, and ideas that have been percolating at the Center, are not merely coincidental.

• The President's April 27 speech to the National Academy of Sciences committed the nation to spend three percent of its GDP on research and development, echoing views expressed by leaders of the Center's Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program from Harvey Brooks to John Holdren.
• The President's April 5 speech in Prague focusing on nuclear danger and committing his administration to negotiate a new arms control agreement with Russia, reduce the role of nuclear weapons in the U.S. national security strategy, and secure all vulnerable nuclear materials within four years, embraces recommendations urged here at the Center for a decade.
• The President's proposal to mitigate climate disruption by putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions - a concept advocated for some years by the Center's Rob Stavins, John Holdren, and Kelly Sims Gallagher.

While the temporary loss of a number of key members leaves holes at the Center, we are fortunate to have new colleagues arriving, including Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti (formerly dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences); Nick Burns (formerly the top-ranking career diplomat at the State Department); Rolf Mowatt-Larssen and Will Tobey (formerly director of the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence and deputy administrator for Nuclear Nonproliferation at the Department of Energy); Paula Dobriansky (former under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs); and John Gieve (former deputy governor of the Bank of England).

For more information about this publication please contact the Belfer Center Communications Office at 617-495-9858.

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