PAKISTAN
November 17, 2011
Podcast of Collins and Frantz Seminar:
Event Report
Veteran investigative journalists Catherine Collins and Douglas Frantz addressed a seminar of the Managing the Atom project at Harvard Kennedy School on Nov. 15 on what they found during their years of research into the U.S. hunt for nuclear traffickers. Here are links to two podcast recordings from that event -- their remarks to the seminar, and the question-and-answer session with the audience, which included fellows from the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School.
(Rex Features via AP Images)
October 19, 2011
"Terrorist Threat Demands Creative Intelligence"
News
Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former director of intelligence and counterintelligence at the Department of Energy, argues that despite not falling victim to a major terrorist event in the last ten years, the United States must not be complacent in its counter-terrorism efforts. Mowatt-Larssen, a Belfer Center senior fellow, said in a seminar at the Center that he believes the possibility of a major attack is higher in the next ten years than in the preceding decade.
AP Photo
September 16, 2011
"Nuclear Proliferation: The Crime with No Punishment?"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, TIME / time.com
By Eben Harrell, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
"Nuclear proliferation is a crime that pays well. Those involved in the Khan network were made very wealthy for their efforts, and the inability of the international community to effectively punish them has resulted in a missed opportunity to provide a deterrent against future black-market salesmen."
AP Photo
September 15, 2011
"The Wars of Afghanistan"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Foreign Policy
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Ambassador Tomsen has poured his energy, his taste for research, and his own recollections into an impressive brick of 849 pages, including footnotes and appendices. Anyone who wants to get up to speed on Afghanistan can profit from reading this book. It is particularly useful in presenting documentation from the Soviet side of the conflict (Tomsen was a former deputy chief of mission in Moscow and also in Beijing). The documents show that the Soviets were as unsuccessful in knocking fractious Afghan heads together as the United States has been over the last decade. The pleas of both superpowers for party unity among their proxies fell (or have fallen) on deaf ears."
July 2011
An Introduction to Pakistan's Military
Report
By Francisco Aguilar, Former Belfer IGA Fellow 2009-2012, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Randy Bell, Former Belfer IGA Fellow 2008-2010, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Natalie Black, Sayce Falk, Former Belfer IGA Fellow 2009-2011, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Sasha Rogers, Former Belfer IGA Fellow 2009-2011 and Aki J. Peritz
The Pakistani military remains an opaque entity, both inside and outside of the country. Few publicly available reports exist for those seeking a basic understanding of its leaders, functions, or allegiances. An Introduction to Pakistan's Military is the first of two Belfer Center reports examining the Pakistani military. To assemble this report, the authors interviewed over two-dozen retired Pakistani military officers, principally in Islamabad and Karachi. The authors also conducted nearly forty additional interviews with Pakistani politicians, civil society actors, journalists, and military experts, as well as with US and European military, diplomatic, and intelligence officers and analysts.
AP Photo
July 22, 2011
"The bin Laden Operation: What's Not To Like?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"The U.S. was right, of course, not to notify the Pakistani authorities prior to the operation, however much the Pakistanis have come to resent this. What is amazing in this operation is that there were a number of Pakistanis independently recruited to help in the operation (at least one of whom has since been arrested by the Pakistani Government), and yet the operation did not leak."
June 2011
"Ensuring Strategic Stability in the Past and Present: Theoretical and Applied Questions"
Paper
In the Foreword to this paper by Andrei Kokoshin, Belfer Center Director Graham Allison writes: "The global nuclear order is reaching a tipping point. Several trends are advancing along crooked paths, each undermining this order. These trends include North Korea’s expanding nuclear weapons program, Iran’s continuing nuclear ambitions, Pakistan’s increasing instability, growing doubts about the sustainability of the nonproliferation regime in general, and terrorist groups’ enduring aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons. Andrei Kokoshin, deputy of the State Duma and former secretary of Russia’s Security Council, analyzes these challenges that threaten to cause the nuclear order to collapse in the following paper."
AP Photo
June 6, 2011
"The Future of al-Qaeda"
Op-Ed, Foreign Policy
By Hassan Abbas, Former Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Tariq Parvez
"[W]hether al-Qaeda's ideology resonates with segments of the world's Muslim populations will have a critical bearing on the organization's ultimate fate. Recent political developments in Egypt, Tunisia and across the Middle East have exposed the bankruptcy of al-Qaeda's ideas as a means of challenging dictatorships in Muslim countries....Much will depend in the coming months and years on the extent to which the changes heralded by the "Arab Spring" improve the lot of common Arabs in terms of governance and economic prospects."
AP Photo
May 25, 2011
"The Fractures That Breed Danger"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Karthika Sasikumar, Former Stanton Nuclear Security Junior Faculty Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom, 2010–2011; Former Associate, International Security Program, 2008–2009
"[I]nstead of heeding the voices that call for retribution, decision-makers in Washington should take the opportunity to press for long-term constitutional and administrative reforms in Islamabad, to cut off funding for discredited parts of the counter-terrorism effort, and to reassure citizens that the United States is not about to exit post-haste, triumphantly carrying away materials seized from the hideout. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was right to emphasize in her recent interview that the United States would continue to cooperate with the Pakistan's government, military and law enforcement, and 'most importantly' with the Pakistani people."
AP Photo
May 17, 2011
"Don't Give Up on Pakistan"
Op-Ed, CNN.com
By Hassan Abbas, Former Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"The process of democratization must continue, as there is no other way to expand civilian control over all institutions of the state. Pakistan has been ruled by generals for half its history — another military takeover would set the country back yet again."
