AFRICA
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January 17, 2013
"Raised on Hatred"
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Fellow, The Future of Diplomacy Project
Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes, "As a child growing up in a Muslim family, I constantly heard my mother, other relatives and neighbors wish for the death of Jews, who were considered our darkest enemy. Our religious tutors and the preachers in our mosques set aside extra time to pray for the destruction of Jews."
January 15, 2013
"The Once and Present Ally: France"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"When the new, and pro-American, French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, returned France to the NATO integrated command in the spring of 2009, a number of prominent French figures stated their reservations, the most articulate of whom was the former French foreign minister under François Mitterrand, Hubert Védrine. Much later, and more recently, in a report submitted to President François Hollande on Nov. 12, 2012, Védrine stated that although de Gaulle had been right in 1966, the world had changed since. And the United States, especially with the reelection of Barack Obama, had changed. The Americans now want an increased military role for the Europeans."
January 11, 2013
"Persecuting Biotechnology"
Op-Ed, Technology+Policy | Innovation@Work
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Nearly two decades of propaganda and advocacy based on questionable scientific evidence forced many countries to forego the benefits of a new technology even before its merits had been assessed. In effect, these restrictions have introduced a new class of risks associated with not being able adopt a new technology even where it would confer benefits to farmers, consumers, and industrialists."
December 10, 2012
"Qatar Arms Deals Expose Limits of US"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"...[M]oving arms to just about anyone who was willing to bring down Moammar Khadafy would have satisfied three of Qatar's goals at once: its political desire for relevancy in making a future Libyan government beholden to it; its strategic desire to minimize the influence of the Shi'ite government in Iran, its giant neighbor; and its practical desire to make a lot of money. As if to make the last point clear, Qatar is now asking the new Libyan government to pay it back for all those guns."
December 3, 2012
"Biotechnology and Africa's Strategic Interests"
Op-Ed, Global Food For Thought
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Biotechnology offers Africa a wider range of economic opportunities than the Green Revolution did. It is already being used to improve food production and establish or revive cotton production. Its economic impact is therefore likely to go well beyond the farm sector to include industrial development."
Winter 2012-2013
"On Tap at Belfer Center: Oil and Water"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
Leonardo Maugeri writes that oil production capacity is surging in the United States and several other countries at such a fast pace that global oil output capacity is likely to grow by nearly 20 percent by 2020—possibly prompting a plunge or even a collapse in oil prices.
Winter 2012-2013
"Center Team Advances Vital Research at Intersection of Water and Energy"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications
Two years ago, Venkatesh (Venky) Narayanamurti and Laura Diaz Anadon, director and associate director of the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, set the stage for the Center’s energy research team to zero in on the challenges facing energy and the natural resource essential to it in many countries around the world—water. This article reviews some of their work to date.
November 30, 2012
"It's a Close Call on Susan Rice"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By David Ignatius, Senior Fellow, Future of Diplomacy Project
David Ignatius, an award winning journalist with the Washington Post and Belfer Center senior fellows writes that the current "Republican assault on Susan Rice is a fabricated scandal, attacking her for repeating CIA talking points, almost verbatim, to explain the Benghazi attacks. [However] the U.N. ambassador’s version, even with its omissions, may turn out to be closer to the truth than some of the inflammatory GOP rhetoric."
November 27, 2012
"Trading Places: Commerce Drives Science And Technology In Africa"
Op-Ed, Forbes
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Africa used mobile phones to create a radically new way of transferring money, thereby restructuring the banking sector. Mobile technology is on the verge of transforming other traditional industries including education and health, among others. In education, Africa can leapfrog into digital books and mobile learning to become a leading source of new educational businesses and industries. In healthcare, mobile technology will transform the very idea of a hospital."
November 27, 2012
"How Tribalism Stunts African Democracy"
Op-Ed, BBC News
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"...[I]t is becoming clear that issues such as infrastructure — energy, transportation, irrigation, and telecommunication — and youth employment are emerging as common themes in African politics irrespective of ideological differences. The predominance of such issues will select for pragmatic leadership over ideology. It is therefore not a surprise that African countries are increasingly electing engineers as presidents."
