FACT SHEETS AND HIGH-LEVEL OVERVIEW
AP Photo
February 2008
"The Pakistan Elections: What Next?"
By Eric Bjornlund, Hassan Abbas, Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Hasan-Askari Rizvi and Dr. Marvin G. Weinbaum
On February 18, Pakistanis voted in parliamentary elections. The results were a major blow to President Pervez Musharraf and his supporters. Opposition parties, led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and a resurgent Awami National Party (ANP), scored major victories. The prime losers were the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Islamists. How can these elections be assessed, and what do they portend for Pakistan’s future and for U.S. policy? These questions were examined at an Asia Program event held one week after the elections.
March 11, 2009
Listen to "The Cross-Border Impact of Violent Events" with DI Fellow, Mohamad Al-Ississ
By Mohamad M. Al-Ississ, Former Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
In a Dubai Initiative Brown Bag Seminar on February 18, 2009, DI Fellow Mohamad Al-Ississ discussed the cross-border impact of violent events.
February 1, 2002
Kazakhstan TV's interview with Graham Allison
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
INTERVIEWER: It is not just heads of state and diplomats who determine the development of interstate relations. For instance, the Belfer Center of Science and International Affairs is one of the most influential "brain trusts" in the United States. Operating as part of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, it provides long-term analysis of the current state of the world, which has changed so much since the end of the Cold War. Graham Allison, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense and nowadays a university professor, is director of this research center. He is convinced that Kazakhstan has a major role to play in the strategic allocation of forces in the world arena. We recently had a chance to meet this prominent American political scientist at Harvard.
March 27, 2000
Transcript of Graham Allison Interview on 'Talk of the Nation' (National Public Radio)
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
Yesterday Russia elected a new president, Vladimir Putin. The former KGB agent is just 47 and is best known for his harsh tactics in dealing with rebels in Chechnya. Putin has been acting president since January, when Boris Yeltsin resigned. He got 52 percent of the vote yesterday, and in a surprise, a Communist candidate received nearly 30 percent of the vote in the former Communist nation. In a midnight press conference Putin interpreted the sizable Communist vote as a protest by the Russian people. He said they are displeased by the current state of life in Russia. In his campaign, Putin made no promises about what he will do to improve their lives, but the nation's social welfare system is in trauma, with high levels of alcoholism, prostitution, and a very high death rate. The nation's banking and judicial systems are dysfunctional and corruption is widespread.
1999
Russia Votes Symposium: Graham Allison on Russian Elections
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
Some of you may remember Yevgenii Primakov’s last comment to the Duma before he was unceremoniously dismissed. This is a true statement. He said “Your lives will be bad, but not long.” I think you could make this comment about the election. It has not been good, but fortunately, it will not be long.
June 12, 2009
DOE Budget Authority for Energy Research, Development, & Demonstration Database
By Kelly Sims Gallagher, Senior Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group and Laura Diaz Anadon, Project Manager, Energy Research, Development, Demonstration & Deployment Policy Project, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group
This document contains June 2009 updates to our database on U.S. government investments in energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (ERD3) through the Department of Energy. The update includes funding for ERD3 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The database, in Microsoft Excel format, tracks DOE appropriations from FY 1978–2009 and the FY 2010 budget request. It also includes several charts.
August 5, 2008
"Stephen M. Walt on the U.S., Iran, and the New Balance of Power in the Persian Gulf"
By Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs; Faculty Chair, International Security Program and Kayhan Barzegar, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
Walt: “…..by maintaining a (new) balance you don’t get conflict breaking out and you tilt in favour whichever side seems to be falling behind. At the same time, you do try to discourage conflict whenever possible. You certainly don’t try to control the region yourselves and if the balance breaks down as it did in 1991 and you have to intervene you go in, you get out as quickly as possible. But you don’t try to organize these societies. You don’t try to tell them how to live. You don’t try to tell them how their governments should be organized and you don’t try to transform them at the point of a rifle barrel. This is not disengagement, but it is also not trying to control the region or dictate its political evolution.”
“…we are not going to have a stable long-term situation in the Persian Gulf until the United States and other countries in the region—including Iran—do come to some understanding about the various issues that concern them. Achieving that goal will require genuine diplomacy…The United States will also have to recognize that Iran’s size, potential power, large population, and its geo-strategic location inevitably make it a major player in the security environment in the Persian Gulf, and ignoring that fact is unrealistic…”
July 11, 2008
"Joseph Nye on Smart Power in Iran-U.S. Relations"
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and Kayhan Barzegar, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
This interview elaborates on the applicability of Nye’s theory of “smart power” in the context of the Middle East and particularly Iran. The discussion further pushes the boundaries on how the current U.S policymakers should take into account soft and smart power towards Iran.
Nye: “… if the Americans, in efforts to try to stop the Iranian’s nuclear weapons program, were to bomb nuclear facilities in Iran, they might gain a few years of slowing down the nuclear weapons program but they would lose the whole generation of younger Iranians who would respond in a nationalistic way. So I think that would be a very large cost for a very limited benefit.”
October 2008
Public Perception of Carbon Capture and Storage Technology Workshop
By Jeffrey Bielicki, Former Research Fellow, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, 2006–2009 and Jennie Stephens, Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy
On June 2-3, 2008, ETIP hosted a workshop on "Public Perception of Carbon Capture and Storage Technology."
AP Photo
February 2008
"The Pakistan Elections: What Next?"
By Eric Bjornlund, Hassan Abbas, Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Hasan-Askari Rizvi and Dr. Marvin G. Weinbaum
On February 18, Pakistanis voted in parliamentary elections. The results were a major blow to President Pervez Musharraf and his supporters. Opposition parties, led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and a resurgent Awami National Party (ANP), scored major victories. The prime losers were the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Islamists. How can these elections be assessed, and what do they portend for Pakistan’s future and for U.S. policy? These questions were examined at an Asia Program event held one week after the elections.
