SOUTHEAST ASIA
March 2011
God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics
Book
By Monica Duffy Toft, Former Associate Professor of Public Policy; Former Board Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Former Director, Initiative on Religion and International Affairs, Daniel Philpott and Timothy Samuel Shah
Is religion a force for good or evil in world politics? How much influence does it have? Despite predictions of its decline, religion has resurged in political influence across the globe, helped by the very forces that were supposed to bury it: democracy, globalization, and technology. And despite recent claims that religion is exclusively irrational and violent, its political influence is in fact diverse, sometimes promoting civil war and terrorism but at other times fostering democracy, reconciliation, and peace. Looking across the globe, the authors explain what generates these radically divergent behaviors.
AP Photo
December 20, 2010
"The Zombie War in Afghanistan"
Op-Ed, NPR.org
By Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs; Faculty Chair, International Security Program
"...[I]t is hard not to see echoes of Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia in 1970, in a failed attempt to eradicate Viet Cong bases there. The two situations are hardly identical, but both illustrate the tendency for wars to expand in both the scope and extent of violence, especially when they aren't going well. You send more troops, but that doesn't turn things around. So you send a few more, and you widen the war to new areas. But that doesn't work either, so you decide you have to alter the rules of engagement, use more missiles, bombs, or drones, or whatever."
November 2010
"Aid Under Fire: Development Projects and Civil Conflict"
Discussion Paper
By Benjamin Crost and Patrick B. Johnston, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2010–2011: International Security Program/Intrastate Conflict Program, 2009–2010
An increasing amount of development aid is targeted to areas affected by civil conflict; some of it in the hope that aid will reduce conflict by weakening popular support for insurgent movements. But if insurgents know that development projects will weaken their position, they have an incentive to derail them, which may exacerbate conflict.
AP Photo
July 2010
"Diplomacy Derailed: The Consequences of Diplomatic Sanctions"
Journal Article, Washington Quarterly, issue 3, volume 33
By Tara Maller, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2010–2011
"Diplomatic sanctions...entail a number of often overlooked consequences for the United States. The potential costs of diplomatic sanctions include not only a substantial loss of information and intelligence on the target state, but also a reduction in communication capacity and a diminished ability to influence the target state. Ironically, diplomatic sanctions may even undermine the effectiveness of other coercive policy tools, such as economic sanctions. These adverse effects ought to cause policymakers to reassess the value of diplomatic isolation as a tool of foreign policy and recognize the inherent value of diplomatic engagement."
AP Photo
September 5, 2010
"Afghanistan: The Diem Moment?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"...[A] removal of Mr. Karzai might turn out to be more straightforward. Karzai is wholly reliant, for election victories and even his own security, on a small cabal of power-brokers. If persuaded that it is in their interest, these men might convoke Mr. Karzai and offer him and his family members and relatives safe passage out of Afghanistan to a country of his choice — perhaps one of those McMansions in Dubai that were paid for out of Kabul Bank funds."
AP Photo
April 2010
"U.S. Interagency Regional Foreign Policy Implementation: A Survey of Current Practice and an Analysis of Options for Improvement"
Paper
By Robert S. Pope, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2009–2010
The United States has a complex, multi-agency structure to plan, synchronize, and execute foreign policy and national security. By statute, the State Department is the lead agency for foreign policy. However, in practice, the much larger and better-funded Department of Defense conducts much of America's foreign policy activity, often with little coordination with the State Department or other relevant agencies. Over the past two decades, the military's Geographic Combatant Commands have taken an increasing lead in planning and executing foreign policy activities around the world. This has often effectively put a military face and voice on America's foreign policy, sometimes to the detriment of broader U.S. goals and relationships. More effective U.S. foreign policy requires greater interagency coordination at all levels and a greater role for the State Department as America's lead agency for foreign policy.
May 2010
"A Pillar's Progress: How Development's History Shapes U.S. Options in the Present"
Discussion Paper
By David Ekbladh, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2009–2010
With the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the "War on Terror" that followed, development aid was shoved back into the spotlight. Many ideas and institutions that had lain dormant in international affairs, insinuated their return into U.S. strategy and the agenda of the international community. "Nation building" in Afghanistan and Iraq along with a hope that development would stifle the appeal of extremist ideologies and the movements that they stirred has returned development to a prominent place in U.S. grand strategy.
April 2010
Securing the Bomb 2010
Book
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
Associate Professor of Public Policy and Project on Managing the Atom Co-Principal Investigator Matthew Bunn provides a comprehensive assessment of global efforts to secure and consolidate nuclear stockpiles, and a detailed action plan for securing all nuclear materials in four years. Securing the Bomb 2010 was commissioned by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). The full report, with additional information on the threat of nuclear terrorism, is available for download on the NTI website.
AP Photo
March 17, 2010
"Afghanistan: From Nation-Building to Governance and Back Again"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Ambassador Holbrooke is not one to sit idly on his mandate. He has assembled an impressive and numerous personal staff. He plans to carry out a "civil surge" in Afghanistan that will increase the numbers of U.S. civilians there from the 300 who were in-country at the beginning of 2009 to 900 at the end of 2010. (Over the same period, he said, the U.S. military strength will go from 31,000 to 100,000). Holbrooke stated that the main priority of the surge is the development of Afghan agriculture, which at one time in the past was quite prosperous."
Spring 2010
"International Security Journal Highlights"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
Among the articles featured in the Winter 2009/10 Issue of the Belfer Center journal International Security are "Same As It Ever Was: Nuclear Alarmism, Proliferation, and the Cold War," by Francis J. Gavin, Posturing for Peace? Pakistan's Nuclear Postures and South Asian Stability," and Understanding Support for Islamist Militancy in Pakistan." International Security is America's leading journal of security affairs.
