PAKISTAN
May 7, 2012
"How It Went Down"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Time
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
"While journalists have provided a number of histories of the events that led to bin Laden's death, the purpose of this analysis is to examine White House decisionmaking for lessons that can be applied to future foreign policy challenges."
In a TIME magazine cover story, Belfer Center Director Graham Allison writes about decisions behind the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. Allison, whose analysis is the result of more than 100 hours of interviews, is author of the prize-winning analysis of the 1971 Cuban Missile Crisis, Essence of Decision.
Summer 2012
Graham Allison in TIME: Inside Story of Bin Laden's Last Days
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
In his dramatic cover story in TIME Magazine on May 7, Belfer Center Director Graham Allison offers readers a behind-the-scenes account of how President Barack Obama made the most fateful decision of his presidency – whether to launch the Special Forces assault on Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan in April 2011. Allison puts readers in the president's Oval Office chair as Obama weighed the risks of the several options he faced as evidence emerged that bin Laden was in the compound in Abbottabad.
AP Photo
May 1, 2012
"The Controversy Over the bin Laden Raid Anniversary: The Real Contrast Is Between Obama and Carter"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Obama is a risk-taker who went ahead with the bin Laden raid against the recommendation of Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and the President's No. 2 military adviser, Gen. James Cartwright. Carter, on the other hand, was a pacifist-inclined president who dallied for months before deciding to go ahead with an operation to rescue the hostages in the American Embassy compound in Tehran."
AP Photo
March 2012
"China and Pakistan: Fair-Weather Friends"
Journal Article, Yale Journal of International Affairs, issue 1, volume VII
By Michael Beckley, Research Fellow, International Security Program
Two assumptions dominate current debates on US foreign policy toward Pakistan. First, Pakistan shares a robust "all-weather" friendship with China centered on core national interests. Second, Pakistan's ability to turn to China in times of need insulates it from US pressure and renders hardline US policies counterproductive. Both of these assumptions are mistaken.
AP Photo
April 5, 2012
"Don't Let bin Laden Family Become Martyrs"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Watch them for a very long time. Give them freedom, but don't leave them alone. By their mere name, the family holds tremendous power. Their whereabouts and actions should be tracked by intelligence agencies. The future career ambitions of the children should be followed, in hopes that they veer toward the arts and literature — anything but politics. Their visitors and friends should be monitored. Strategic leaks should keep their supporters on edge."
Spring 2012
Aisha Ahmad: Knowledge Without Action Is Injustice
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
As a child, Aisha Ahmad remembers vividly the arms bazaars in Peshawar and the throngs of bearded mujahedeen commanders as they passed through her grandfather’s smoke laden offices in the Pakistani frontier province.Though she was born in the UK and grew up in Canada, her family retained strong ties with their native community and during her youth Ahmad regularly traveled to the unruly Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.
March 23, 2012
New Study Finds Four-Year Nuclear Security Effort Making Major Progress But Won't Complete the Nuclear Security Job
Press Release
By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
On the eve of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, a new study finds that an international initiative to secure all vulnerable nuclear stockpiles within four years has reduced the dangers posed by many of the world’s highest-risk nuclear stockpiles. But the new analysis, by researchers with the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, also concludes that much will remain to be done to ensure that all nuclear weapons and material are secure when the current four-year effort comes to an end.
February 25, 2012
Conversations in Diplomacy: Cameron Munter
Media Feature
US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter shares his insights into the future of US-Pakistan relations in an interview with FODP Director Nicholas Burns.
February 3, 2012
India’s strategic importance to the US
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By R. Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
Professor Burns discusses India's political, economic and geographic importance to the United States and why it must be included in President Obama’s recent foreign policy pivot to Asia.
AP Photo
February 2, 2012
"Does Obama Have Baraka?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"The operation of Abbottabad was much better coordinated between the military and the CIA than was the unfortunate attempt, thirty years earlier, to rescue the hostages held by the Iranian "students" at the American Embassy in Tehran, during the presidency of another Democratic president, Jimmy Carter. Although the two operations were very different, they resembled each other in some aspects. Both represented military interventions in countries with which the United States was not at war. Also, in both cases, it was the CIA's responsibility to acquire intelligence on the internal situation in the country and prepare the groundwork for the intervention. As for the military, it was their responsibility in each case to carry out the attack."
