ASIA
Summer 2013
"Yvonne Yew Offers Insight into Crucial Asian Security Issues"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
"Researching Asian security issues has never been more topical,” Yvonne Yew said in discussing her work at the Belfer Center. Despite Asia’s economic growth, she said, “simmering tensions, territorial disputes, nuclear proliferation concerns, and military skirmishes serve to potentially undermine the region’s peace and prosperity. As a former Singaporean diplomat and representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yew is in a unique position to view security issues spurred by the momentous and ongoing rise of Asia."
Summer 2013
"Elbe Group Facilitates U.S.-Russia Communication, Security"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Kevin Ryan, Director, Defense and Intelligence Project, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
As U.S. and Soviet forces converged in Germany in the final days of WWII, both armies met at the River Elbe near Torgau. That meeting of comrades, united in the face of common threats, is the inspiration for the Belfer Center’s “Elbe Group,” whose purpose is to maintain an open and continuous channel of communication on sensitive issues of U.S.-Russian relations. In late March, the Elbe Group met in Jerusalem for its eighth meeting since its founding in 2010.
Summer 2013
International Security Journal Highlights
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
International Security is America’s leading journal of security affairs. It provides sophisticated analyses of contemporary security issues and discusses their conceptual and historical foundations. The journal is edited at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and published quarterly by the MIT Press.
May 10, 2013
Russia in Review
Media Feature
Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for May 3-10, 2013.
AP Photo
May 2013
"North Korea's Nuclear Weapons: Future Strategy and Doctrine"
Policy Brief
By Terence Roehrig, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom
A nuclear North Korea makes it crucial that all countries in Northeast Asia work hard at maintaining a stable security environment that avoids the dangers of a crisis while encouraging North Korea to adopt a nuclear strategy that retains its "no first use" pledge, a strong command and control system, and a stable nuclear weapons posture. Given its relationship with North Korea, China is best positioned to encourage DPRK leaders in these directions.
May 8, 2013
"Born Yesterday"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"...[T]here are many downsides to what has happened in Afghanistan. In my view, we should have stopped hostilities in Afghanistan when bin Laden and his al-Qaeda followers escaped into Pakistan in late 2001. But it is now more than 11 years later and way past time to get out."
April 23, 2013
Ashton Carter at JFK Jr. Forum: Turning a Strategic Corner
News
By Ashton B. Carter, Former Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Harvard & Stanford Universities
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter joined moderator Graham Allison, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, on April 23, 2013, at a John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum for a discussion on the strategic and budgetary transitions currently underway in the Department of Defense. Topics addressed included the importance of protecting investments in the future of U.S. national security and the current rebalance to the Pacific. Questions from the audience addressed subjects ranging from potential furloughs due to budget cuts to the thirtieth anniversary of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.
View the entire JFK Jr. event here on the Institute of Politics website.
Attached is the transcript of Carter's remarks, as prepared for delivery.
May 3, 2013
Russia in Review
Media Feature
Russia in Review: a digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for April 20 - May 3, 2013
May 2, 2013
"Are Chechen Immigrants a 'Threat'?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
“There are still many questions left unanswered as America seeks to understand how the Tsarnaev brothers could have inflicted harm on the innocent people of the country that has granted them shelter, food and education.But there is one question that should not be asked at all, and that is whether the horrendous attacks in Boston should prompt the United States and other countries to consider immigrants a security threat just because they belong to a certain ethnic group.”
April 30, 2013
"Boston Bombing Puts Spotlight on Security Services' Failure to Cooperate"
Op-Ed, RIA Novosti
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Was the bombing of the Boston marathon the result of an intelligence failure? There seems to be no clear answer to that question yet. But it does seem to me that had there been a greater degree of trust between the US and Russian secret services, they would have been more willing to share information and act on each other’s warnings, preventing Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from allegedly bombing the Boston marathon's finish line on April 15."
