CANADA
July/August 2008
"Separatism's Final Country"
Journal Article, Foreign Affairs, issue 4, volume 87
By Richard N. Rosecrance, Adjunct Professor; Senior Fellow, International Security Program and Arthur A. Stein
"Muller argues that ethnonationalism is the wave of the future and will result in more and more independent states, but this is not likely. One of the most destabilizing ideas throughout human history has been that every separately defined cultural unit should have its own state. Endless disruption and political introversion would follow an attempt to realize such a goal. Woodrow Wilson gave an impetus to further state creation when he argued for "national self-determination" as a means of preventing more nationalist conflict, which he believed was a cause of World War I...."
July-August 2008
"Size Matters"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, The American Interest, issue 6, volume 3
By Richard N. Rosecrance, Adjunct Professor; Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"As the American political system hurtles toward its quadrennial encounter with the oracle of democracy, it is worth our while to take stock of the country's place in a world beset by bewilderingly rapid change. (Heaven knows none of the candidates will bother to do this.) I want to suggest that an old yet generally neglected subject remains particularly relevant: the relationship between the size of political units and the effective scale of systems of economic production and exchange. Another way to describe this relationship is by recourse to the hoary scholarly phrase "political economy", a term of art that has unfortunately gone out of style...."
Belfer Center
Spring 2008
"Iceland's Minister Cites Climate's Impact on International Security"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Susan M. Lynch, Program Assistant, International Security Program; Web Manager, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
"The interests of the High North, both locally and globally, are a trans-Atlantic issue that can only be dealt with as part of a strong and realistic security policy and maritime strategy on the part of NATO," concluded Icelandic Minister of Justice Bjorn Bjarnason at an International Security Program–sponsored lecture last fall. While the Cold War's end saw the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iceland, climate change has reconfigured the security, economic, and geopolitical profile of the Arctic with Iceland retaining its geo-strategic importance.
December 3-9, 2007
"Poland's Place, Post-Kyoto"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Warsaw Business Journal, issue 48
By Mladen Petrov and Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
"Poland is of great importance, and curbing greenhouse gas, particularly carbon dioxide emissions, will be a very great challenge, because of the rapidly growing economy and the very high reliance on coal."
November 2007
Linking Tradable Permit Systems for Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Opportunities, Implications, and Challenges
Report
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board and Judson Jaffe
"With tradable permit systems for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in place in some parts of the world and actively being considered in others, increasing attention has been given to the opportunity to link these systems. Linking occurs when the government that maintains one system allows regulated entities to use allowances or credits from another system to meet domestic compliance obligations."
November 26, 2007
"Climate Change and Iceland's Role in North Atlantic Security"
Presentation
Björn Bjarnason is Minister of Justice for the Republic of Iceland, and a number of his responsibilities relate to domestic and external security — analogous to those of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His lecture addressed security issues relating to maritime activity in the North Atlantic and the changing profile of these maritime security issues due to climate change and the increased exploitation of oil and gas in the Arctic.
November 2007
"Fixing the Department of Homeland Security"
Policy Brief
By Elaine Kamarck, Lecturer in Public Policy
In November 2002, Congress passed legislation creating the first new Cabinet department in more than a decade — the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Now in its fourth year, the department is plagued with problems and chronic mismanagement. If DHS is to fulfill its mission, the next president will have to take a hard look at the agency and make some major structural changes....This paper proposes a redirection and redefinition of DHS, with an aim toward helping it more effectively pursue its core mission: protecting the American people.
September 27, 2007
"Linking Tradable Permit Systems: Opportunities, Challenges, and Implications"
Presentation
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board
Professor Stavins' presentation at the 7th IETA Forum on the State and Development of the Greenhouse Gas Market described tradable permit systems and linkage among them that allows emission reduction efforts to be redistributed across systems. He notes that linkage may become the de jure or de facto post-2012 international policy architecture.
July 20, 2007
"My Uncle 'Keri' and the Immigration Debate"
Op-Ed, Lowell Sun
By Gregory Aftandilian, Former Research Fellow, Dubai Initiative/International Security Program 2006-2007
Gregory Aftandilian reflects on his own family's history and the current debate on immigration.
July 2007
"Reducing Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism Threats"
Conference Paper
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom and Tom Bielefeld, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom
Urgent actions are needed to prevent a nuclear or radiological 9/11. Terrorists are actively seeking nuclear weapons and Radiological Dispersal Devices (RDDs) and the materials to make them. There are scores of sites where the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons exist, in dozens of countries worldwide. There are thousands of sites worldwide where radiological materials exist. Many of these sites are not sufficiently secured to defeat the kinds of threats that terrorists and criminals have demonstrated they can pose. A dangerous gap remains between the urgency of the threat of nuclear and radiological terrorism and the scope and pace of the U.S. and world response. While the gap has narrowed significantly in recent years, much more needs to be done. This paper describes the nuclear and radiological terrorism threats, analyzes the actions taken so far to address these threats, and recommends further actions going forward.
