SOUTH ASIA
AP Photo
August 6, 2012
"Lights Out in India"
Op-Ed, Newsweek
By Niall Ferguson, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The recent power outage in India interested me more than the Olympics. (I had a very British reaction to the opening ceremonies: I found them excruciatingly embarrassing.) The Indian blackout was surely the biggest electricity failure in history, affecting a staggering 640 million people. If you have ever visited Delhi in the summer, you will have some idea what it must have felt like.
AP Photo
August 2, 2012
"Fear the Grid"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"India's woes should strike a warning for modern nations to invest in themselves and in the networks and infrastructure that unite their citizens. It's important to be a competent nation....It means that the lights go on, trains run on time, and a capital city — whether it is New Delhi or Washington, which suffered its own debilitating blackout last month — continues to function."
AP Photo/John Giles
July 2012
"Post-Durban Climate Policy Architecture Based on Linkage of Cap-and-Trade Systems"
Discussion Paper
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements and Matthew Ranson
The outcome of the December 2011 United Nations climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, provides an important new opportunity to move toward an international climate policy architecture that is capable of delivering broad international participation and significant global CO2 emissions reductions at reasonable cost. This paper addresses an important component of potential climate policy architecture for the post-Durban era: links among independent tradable permit systems for greenhouse gases.
AP Photo
July 2012
"The Durban Platform Negotiations: Goals and Options"
Policy Brief
In December 2011, parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, which launched a new round of negotiations aimed at developing "a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force" for the post-2020 period. The Durban Platform negotiations got underway this year and are scheduled to conclude in 2015. This Viewpoint analyzes the elements of the Durban Platform and the possible role that a new instrument might play.
AP Photo
July 2012
"Economic Impacts and Impact Dynamics of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) Cotton in India"
Journal Article, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Early Edition
By Jonas Kathage, Matin Qaim and Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
Despite widespread adoption of genetically modified crops in many countries, heated controversies about their advantages and disadvantages continue. Especially for developing countries, there are concerns that genetically modified crops fail to benefit smallholder farmers and contribute to social and economic hardship. Many economic studies contradict this view, but most of them look at short-term impacts only, so that uncertainty about longer-term effects prevails. The authors address this shortcoming by analyzing economic impacts and impact dynamics of Bt cotton in India.
AP Photo
Summer 2012
"Organizing Insurgency: Networks, Resources, and Rebellion in South Asia"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 37
By Paul Staniland, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program/Intrastate Conflict Program, 2008–2009
Do insurgent groups use external funding, involvement in illicit economics, and looted resources to increase their military resilience, or do increased resources lead to a lack of discipline? A new study suggests that both outcomes are possible, and the answer depends on the group’s underlying social network. Groups with strong ties among their leaders as well as to their local communities are able to utilize resources to increase their fighting power and organizational capacity, whereas groups with weak ties are more likely to degenerate into greedy bands of thieves. It is therefore important that policymakers understand and consider the social and organizational bases of insurgent groups.
AP Photo
Summer 2012
"The Jihad Paradox: Pakistan and Islamist Militancy in South Asia"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 37
By S. Paul Kapur and Sumit Ganguly, Editorial Board Member, Quarterly Journal: International Security
Pakistan has used religiously motivated militant forces as a central part of its grand strategy since its founding, relying on armed groups to compensate for its material and political weaknesses. Recently, however, many of these groups have grown in strength and are looking to pursue their own agendas instead of bending to Pakistan’s will. Pakistan is thus caught in a jihad paradox: the very characteristic of the Pakistani state that makes supporting Islamist militancy useful also makes it extremely dangerous to Pakistan’s internal stability. Pakistan must recognize that its current policy has outlived its utility and work to defeat the militant organizations operating in its territory.
June 2012
"Running Al Qaeda"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Reuters Magazine
By Zachary Tumin, Special Assistant to the Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
"Getting second-rung leadership right is important for any enterprise, and for al Qaeda that meant assuring the brand and building network capacity for terror. Bin Laden was careful about deciding who would be anointed with two powerful gifts—his blessing of leadership, and formal affiliation of groups to al Qaeda central (a term he heard used by the media and, amazingly, appropriated)."
June 2012
Unleashing the Nuclear Watchdog: Strengthening and Reform of the IAEA
Report
By Trevor Findlay, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
This report marks the culmination of a two-year research project that examined all aspects of the mandate and operations of the International Atomic Energy Agency, from major programs on safeguards, safety, security, and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy to governance, management, and finance.
AP Images
June 7, 2012
"US makes Asia a priority"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
In the context of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s current trip to Asia, Professor Burns discusses the Obama administration's “rebalancing” of our global policy toward a priority emphasis on the vast Asia-Pacific region.
