EUROPE
July 25, 2012
"A Rapid Fall In The Euro Can Save Spain From Collapse"
Op-Ed, Financial Times
By Martin Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University
"The possible breakup of the eurozone is now openly discussed by policy officials and financial executives. The interest rate on Spanish government debt has soared above 7 per cent...Greece is likely to fail its inspection by the 'troika', bringing it closer to a eurozone exit by the autumn [and} even Germany is under financial pressure," writes the Belfer Center Board member Martin Feldstein, "The last eurozone summit ended with an optimistic communiqué but nothing of substance. Meanwhile, financial markets may already be in the process of forcing a solution upon Brussels policy makers. The declining value of the euro holds the key to the eurozone’s survival."
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 12, 2012
"BC Case Throws Cold Water on IRA, Academia"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Putting aside the fact that the First Amendment doesn't recognize academic research projects as protected entities, universities are — especially when it comes to international security concerns — rarely left alone. Nuclear science programs fall under strict government regulation; administrators must validate the continuing enrollment status of students from other countries."
Summer 2012
"Correspondence: Debating the Sources and Prospects of European Integration"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 37
By Ulrich Krotz, Richard Maher, David M. McCourt, Andrew Glencross, Norrin M. Ripsman, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, January–June 2011, Mark Sheetz, Associate, International Security Program, Jean-Yves Haine and Sebastian Rosato, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2005–2006
Ulrich Krotz and Richard Maher, David M. McCourt and Andrew Glencross, Norrin M. Ripsman, Mark S. Sheetz and Jean-Yves Haine respond to Sebastian Rosato's spring 2011 article, "Europe’s Troubles: Power Politics and the State of the European Project."
AP Photo
June 26, 2012
"Don't Write Off Cap and Trade"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, China Dialogue
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board; Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements
Various journalists and advocates have, of late, described America's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) as being near "the brink of failure" thanks to the trend of very low prices of permits to emit carbon dioxide. Likewise, commentators have claimed that Europe's carbon market, the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), may be "sinking into oblivion" because its emissions allowances too have become very cheap.
July 9, 2012
How Barclays Lost Its Head
Op-Ed, Newsweek
By Niall Ferguson, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Recently a series of emails dating back to 2005 and 2006 came to light which document repeated efforts by traders at Barclay's bank to get their colleagues to rig the interest rate known as LIBOR (the London Interbank Offered Rate). "Had the LIBOR scandal been an isolated incident, the chief executive of Barclays, Bob Diamond, might just have survived," writes Belfer Center Board member Niall Ferguson, "[b]ut coming as just the latest in a succession of revelations of sharp practice and/or mismanagement at British financial institutions, “Liborgate” proved fatal not only to Diamond but also to the Barclays chairman and the bank’s chief operating officer."
AP Photo
July 8, 2012
"Is Google a Monopoly? Wrong Question"
Op-Ed, Bloomberg
By Susan P. Crawford, Former Faculty Affiliate, Information and Communications Technology and Public Policy Project, January–December 2012
"What competition law has to say about the personalized, vertically integrated ecosystems now being built by Apple, Facebook and Google is far from clear. Consumers will have a choice of competing handsets, as they do now. But their subsequent options (what calendar, what map, what apps) may be sharply limited. Signing up with a particular brand of personal assistant will lead to a cascade of path-dependent filters, as software learns more about its users and serves them more directly."
June 21, 2012
"Obama or Romney — who will be the better president on foreign policy?"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
Professor Burns disucsses the ability of the U.S. presidential candidates' to navigate the complex foreign policy issues that the victor will face coming into term next January. These challenges include issue such as North Korea, the European economic crisis, humanitarian suffering in Syria and Sudan, and climate change.
AP Photo
June 15, 2012
"At 50, the Cuban Missile Crisis as Guide"
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Fifty years ago, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. During the standoff, President John F. Kennedy thought the chance of escalation to war was “between 1 in 3 and even,” and what we have learned in later decades has done nothing to lengthen those odds. Such a conflict might have led to the deaths of 100 million Americans and over 100 million Russians.
