ASIA
May 28, 1989
Thawing Cold War
Op-Ed, The Dallas Morning Star
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
Once again General Secretary Gorbachev appears to be trying to answer da to a Western proposal -- this time on conventional arms control. Moscow's latest proposal largely accepts the North Atlantic Treaty Organization proposal for reductions in conventional arms by both alliances to equal numbers of tanks, artillery and armored troop carriers. Moreover, the numerical ceilings Mr. Gorbachev proposed are identical with NATO's earlier proposal on tanks and armored troop
March 15, 1989
If Not the Cold War, Then What?
Op-Ed, Chicago Tribune
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
The beginning of East-West conventional arms talks in Vienna represents another window of opportunity for stabilizing a relationship between the two superpowers beyond the Cold War. If not the Cold War, what? What relationship between the superpowers is both desirable and feasible?
February 19, 1989
Success Is Within Reach
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
With the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the unilateral reductions in tanks and troop divisions in Eastern Europe, Mikhail S. Gorbachev will have sharply reduced the major military threat to American vital interests. If he continues pursuing his current agenda for the next several years, he will pose for the West for the first time since the late 1940's a conceptual challenge: What do we want beyond victory in the cold war?
February 17, 1989
A Remarkable Realism on Afghanistan; Gorbachev Saw the Futility, We Should See the Opportunity
Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
The withdrawal of the last Soviet soldier from Afghanistan is an occasion not only for rejoicing but for reflection as well. The effect of Soviet defeat may prove more profound than the consequences of American failure in Vietnam. Mikhail S. Gorbachev's remarkable realism here demonstrates an unprecedented willingness to cooperate in resolving regional conflicts.
1989
"Analyzing the Dual Use Technologies Question"
Discussion Paper
By Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project (on leave), Harvard & Stanford Universities
Discussion Paper by Dr. Ashton B. Carter
Fall 1988
Testing Gorbachev
Journal Article, Foreign Affairs, issue no. 1, volume vol. 67
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
Criticizes "the failure of American policymakers to develop any concept or strategy for dealing with the 'new-thinking' Soviet leadership". Proposes that "the United States and its allies... reach beyond containment to aggressive engagement of the Soviet Union in ways that encourage Gorbachev's reformist instincts" by means of specific tests of his intentions in the fields of arms control, regional conflict and human rights.
September 4, 1988
Defusing The Nuclear Menace
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School and Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
ARMS CONTROL has fallen off the nation's political radar in recent months. But it shouldn't. The world is as dangerous as ever.
U.S. and Soviet arsenals number over 50,000 nuclear weapons, most more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima; intercontinental ballistic missiles can deliver these destructive payloads in less than 30 minutes to any point on the globe.
May 3, 1988
Why Ratifying the INF Treaty Really Matters
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
The United States Senate should vote to ratify the INF Treaty - and it will. As in the committee hearings, debate on the floor focuses on the consequences of this treaty for national security. In the end, most members will agree with Sen. Sam Nunn's conclusion that the treaty makes a 'modest but useful contribution to NATO security.'
October 26, 1987
Second Look: Lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
The 25th anniversary of the Cuban Missile crisis is an appropriate occasion to ask: what lessons should this event teach policy makers in the United States and the Soviet Union today? Distant as it is, the missile crisis still offers the best lens available through which to examine the possibilities of nuclear confrontation, problems of crisis management and opportunities for crisis prevention. It remains the only occasion in the postwar era when the United States and the Soviet Union stood eyeball to eyeball contemplating actions that could have led directly to nuclear war.
Summer 1986
The Owls' Agenda for Avoiding Nuclear War
Journal Article, Washington Quarterly
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Albert Carnesale, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
The debate over national security and arms control has focused primarily on weapons: more or fewer weapons, different kinds of weapons. During the 1984 presidential campaign, for example, President Ronald Reagan defended his administration's military buildup, the biggest in peacetime. Former Vice President Walter Mondale advocated a freeze on deploying new weapons. Numbers and types of arms have preoccupied governments and specialists on both the right and the left.
