From the Director

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

Winter 2010-11

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

For nearly four decades, the Belfer Center has set the national standard for policy-relevant research on security issues. The International Security Program publishes by far the most influential journal on security policy in the United States.  That is not just my opinion. International Security, launched by our founder Paul Doty, repeatedly ranks first for citations per article among all journals in the field of international relations (#1 in the last 5 of 6 years). The Center is breaking new ground on a range of security issues, including our Project Minerva partnership with MIT on cyber threats, a complex new frontier for U.S. defense policy, and an Iran Negotiation Working Group. We are also pleased to welcome a new senior fellow, Olli Heinonen, the former deputy director of the IAEA, who clearly knows more about Iran's nuclear program than anyone outside Iran.

As colleague and Belfer Board member Joe Nye often reminds us, successful foreign policy relies on more than just hard power. So we have been very excited as Nick Burns has been building a new fourth pillar of the Belfer Center's content. In addition to our programs on international security, science and technology, and energy and environment, we are establishing a fourth program: diplomacy and international politics.

Throughout the fall, Nick and his team have been hosting a series of high-profile events and speakers. Guests have included Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, and Israel's former foreign minister, Tsipi Livni. The new Crown-Belfer Initiative has begun intense off-the-record discussion of the hottest topics in the Middle East for top academics from Greater Boston. And Nick has partnered with the University-wide Program on Negotiation and Business School Professor Jim Sebenius to co-sponsor the Great Negotiator Award.

The new diplomacy program will be home to more than Nick's Future of Diplomacy Project, which he founded when he arrived two years ago. The Middle East Initiative also has moved under the program's umbrella, alongside the Dubai Project. Nick also is planning to extend the program's efforts to India and South Asia. The dynamic project web sites reflect this new energy.

On the science policy, energy and environmental fronts, director Venkatesh Narayanamurti (Venky), chair of the Science, Technology and Public Policy program has launched an ambitious new initiative on technology and governance. The inaugural step was the Technology and Governance 2.0 Conference, which Venky convened in September with more than 80 of the nation's top IT entrepreneurs and policy makers.

And as one will see in the articles in this issue of the Center News, Henry Lee's team is tackling head-on a number of politically loaded environment and energy issues, not least how to pay for fixing our decrepit transportation infrastructure. Calestous Juma, the subject of our Spotlight in this issue, is on the verge of publishing what promises to be a pivotal book on how technology can revitalize agriculture in Africa.

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

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