ARTICLES AND OP-EDS
September 20, 2009
"Settling for Failure in the Middle East"
Washington Post
By Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs; Faculty Chair, International Security Program
"This situation is a tragedy in the making between peoples who have known more than their share. Unless Obama summons the will and skill to break the logjam, a two-state solution will become impossible and those who yearn for peace will be even worse off than before."
September 19, 2009
"The US Must Help Rebuild Somalia"
Boston Globe
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
This week's US raid in Somalia that killed Al Qaeda operatives removed dangers to the United States and its allies, but did little to bring progress to one of the least governed places in the world.
September 17, 2009
"Obama Made the Right Decision on Missile Defense"
National Review Online
By Thomas M. Nichols, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom
"Despite the outcry that President Obama has sold out the Europeans and caved to the Russians by cancelling missile defenses in Europe, it was the right thing to do. Those defenses were not going to work (or work well enough or soon enough to matter in any major crisis with Iran), and the diplomatic price we were paying for them was far out of proportion to any small gains we might have made by annoying the Russians or reassuring the Czechs and the Poles...."
September 16, 2009
Going All the Way with Iran
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
NEW YORK -- The United State is juggling four critical and increasingly linked foreign policy issues in Palestine/Israel, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, but seems to be making little headway as we approach critical junctures in all four. A different approach seems worth pondering.
September 15, 2009
"Channeling the 'Animal Spirit'"
On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Four fundamental, interrelated governance actions inside corporations are essential to create real economic value (not the paper chase that brought the sector low), to enhance accountability, to increase the confidence of investors and other stakeholders and, in this era importantly, to ensure that the public trust and public mission of finance is honored."
September 15, 2009
"Climate Change a Stumbling Block to Africa's Economies"
The Daily Nation
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
According to the World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change, ... a two-degree Celsius warming above pre-industrial levels could permanently reduce Africa's annual per capita consumption by four to five per cent....The report calls on industrialised countries, which have released most of the greenhouse gases, to lead the way in charting a new low-carbon economic path. In addition, the report calls for financial support to enable developing countries adapt to climate change and lay the foundation for low-carbon economies.
September 15, 2009
"Riding the Digital Express"
BBC News
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
The first undersea fibre optic cable, Seacom, reached the east African coast in July 2009....Speaking at Seacom's launch on 23 July, Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete visualised a future in which Africans would truly become part of the global economy....But all these benefits will not be realised without a strong combination of entrepreneurship, education, policy and investment in regional networks.
September 14, 2009
Thoughts While Flying to New York on September 11, 2009
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
NEW YORK -- I marked the eighth anniversary Friday of the 9/11 terror attack in the United States by flying from Beirut to New York -- apt symbols of their wider American and Arab societies that in so many sectors are locked in an ongoing confrontation that includes the use of violence by both sides. This day of remembrance occurred at a time when the United States was refocusing seriously on waging the hitherto inconclusive “global war on terror” in Afghanistan.
September 14, 2009
"American Power in 21st Century"
The Korea Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
The problem for American power in the 21st century is that there are more and more things outside the control of even the most powerful state. Although the U.S. does well on military measures, there is much going on that those measures fail to capture.
September 11, 2009
"Wall Street’s New Gilded Age"
Newsweek
By Niall Ferguson, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"But now, barely a year after one of the worst crises in all financial history, we seem to have returned to the Gilded Age of the late 19th century-the last time bankers came close to ruling America," argues Niall Ferguson, member of the Belfer Center's board of directors. "A few Wall Street giants, led by none other than JPMorgan, are back to making serious money and paying million-dollar bonuses," Ferguson says, while "every month, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans face foreclosure or unemployment because of a crisis caused by ... a few Wall Street giants."
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