POLICY BRIEFINGS, TESTIMONY & PRESENTATIONS
August 2009
"Options for Reforming the Clean Development Mechanism"
By The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)—established by the Kyoto Protocol of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change—is an emissions offset program that allows industrialized countries to receive credits for funding emissions reduction projects in developing countries. The program is intended to provide a cost-effective way for industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time supporting sustainable development in developing countries. However, the CDM has been criticized for its lengthy and expensive project approval procedures, its exclusion of many categories of potentially important mitigation activities, and its methodologies for calculating whether projects actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In response to these problems, this Issue Brief presents a variety of options for reforming the CDM.
AP Photo
August 2009
"Improving U.S.-China Relations: The Next Steps"
By Richard N. Rosecrance, Adjunct Professor; Senior Fellow, International Security Program; Director, Project on U.S.-China Relations
A higher Renminbi will have two advantages: for the United States, it will help to equilibrate the past trade imbalance; for China, it will stimulate consumption (and enhance imports). It will therefore help China switch from a purely exporting strategy to one that maintains domestic growth through internal consumption. The goods that were to be sent abroad can now be consumed by an increasingly middle class nation at home. These steps will bring China and the United States closer economically and increase international stability. However, unless the military-security relations of the two countries improve, this will not be a sufficient remedy for the two nations' long term problems.
AP Photo
August 2009
"A Tighter Net: Strengthening the Proliferation Security Initiative"
By Emma Belcher, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom
Australia and other countries should redouble their efforts to fix serious gaps in an international arrangement to stop maritime shipments of materials destined for weapons of mass destruction programs, according to the Brief. It argues that heightened concerns over North Korea provide an opportunity to bolster the Proliferation Security Initiative, a 95-country arrangement to promote interception of transfers of cargoes related to weapons of mass destruction.
AP Photo
August 5, 2009
"A Proposal for a Global Upstream Emission Trading System (UGETS)"
By Akinobu Yasumoto and Mutsuyoshi Nishimura
An effective policy approach to climate change would be a global emission trading system. Opinions differ, however, as to what approach should be pursued when fostering a global emissions trading system. Many argue in favor of linking various national and regional emission trading systems as a possible way forward. However, an alternative method, which involves developing a new system from the ground up, could prove more advantageous. Under an Upstream Global Emission Trading System (UGETS), all nations would use an upstream emissions trading system that would result in far fewer monitoring points than a downstream system. A nation would only need to keep track of domestic shipments and imports of fossil fuels.
AP Photo
July 30, 2009
"Statement of Nicholas Burns Before the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs"
By R. Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics
R. Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, testified on Iran before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on July 30, 2009.
July 2009
"How Do We Know This is Not Another Great Depression? Lessons for Policymakers from the 1930s"
By Jeffrey Frankel, James W. Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Growth
The current economic crisis is fundamentally different from those we have experienced in recent past. The proximate causes of previous recessions (1980-2 and 1990-91) were increases in interest rates in response to inflation. This time around, however, low interest rates and loose monetary policy during the period 2003-2005 had contributed to a bubble in asset prices, rather than to inflation. This – coupled with an underestimation of risk in our financial system, failures of corporate governance, and excessive debt by both households and government – caused the crisis of 2007-09.
AP Image
July 7, 2009
"Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: Securing Pakistani Nuclear Weapons"
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"The problem is not the quality of Pakistan's nuclear security efforts. The problem is that the standard for success is so unforgiving. In a world in which terrorists are actively seeking weapons of mass destruction, there can be no breakdown in security that enables terrorists to obtain a nuclear bomb."
July 2009
"State and Local Fusion Centers"
By Eric Rosenbach, Executive Director for Research, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Aki J. Peritz
This memo provides members of Congress with an overview of fusion centers, explains the role these centers play in information sharing and addresses some challenges that they face today.
July 2009
"The USA-PATRIOT Act"
By Eric Rosenbach, Executive Director for Research, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Aki J. Peritz
This memo provides an overview of the USA-PATRIOT Act and its provisions that will expire at the end of 2009.
July 2009
"The Role of Private Corporations in the Intelligence Community"
By Eric Rosenbach, Executive Director for Research, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Aki J. Peritz
This memo provides members of Congress and their staffs with an overview of the role of private corporations working with and within the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC).
