MIDDLE EAST
(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
March 17, 2011
"U.S. Should Support British and French-led No Fly Zone in Libya"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
"President Obama should announce immediately full U.S. support for a British-French led No Fly Zone over Libya," writes Graham Allison. "He should express confidence in the British and French to organize and conduct this military operation with the backing of their colleagues in the 27-nation European Union and NATO. The US should stand ready to respond to requests for help if we have unique capabilities, including intelligence assets, essential for this mission." The U.S. should not take the lead, Allison argues.
(AP Photo/CIA)
December 6, 2010
"Break the Silence on Syria's Nuclear Program"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School and Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
If Israel had not bombed the Al-Kibar reactor site in an air strike in September 2007, it would be producing plutonium by now for Syria's first nuclear bomb," write Belfer Center Director Graham Allison and former IAEA Deputy Director Olli Heinonen. "But this violation of Syria's treaty commitments was not discovered by IAEA inspectors....So it has been convenient for world powers to let Syria slip off the radar and to move on as if these events had not occurred." This silence, the authors argue, must be broken.
September/October 2010
"Graham T. Allison: The Congenital Optimist"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, has consistently warned policy makers about the dangers of a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of terrorist groups such as al Qaeda. Allison spoke with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists about what he thinks needs to be done today to turn rhetoric about tightening nuclear security into stronger action.
August 9, 2010
Graham Allison Calls for Citizen Follow-up to "Countdown to Zero"
Memorandum, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
The Belfer Center is honored to have a number of our scholars and alumni prominently featured in the film Countdown to Zero. It is a testament to our long-standing commitment to providing leadership in advancing policy-relevant knowledge about the threat of nuclear terrorism and proliferation. Translating words into deeds, however, will require private citizens to take action. For her work in pushing nations around the world to sign a treaty banning land mines, Jody Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997....Someone asked one of my colleagues here at the Center, what would a nuclear Jody Williams do? Colleagues here have developed a list.
Summer 2010
From the Director
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Graham Allison notes that the themes developed at President Obama's Nuclear Security Summit and its agenda of action, including countries' specific work plans, reflect the Belfer Center's analytic efforts over more than a decade.
AP Photo
January/February 2010
"Nuclear Disorder: Surveying Atomic Threats"
Journal Article, Foreign Affairs, issue 1, volume 89
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
The current global nuclear order is extremely fragile, and the three most urgent challenges to it are North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan. If North Korea and Iran become established nuclear weapons states over the next several years, the nonproliferation regime will have been hollowed out. If Pakistan were to lose control of even one nuclear weapon that was ultimately used by terrorists, that would change the world. It would transform life in cities, shrink what are now regarded as essential civil liberties, and alter conceptions of a viable nuclear order.
Winter 2009-10
"From the Director"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
President Obama is facing two of the most important foreign policy decisions of his presidency: whether to Americanize the Afghanistan war, and how to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. In thinking about these issues - as with many others lately - I find myself reflecting on my friend Ernest May, Charles Warren Professor of History and a longtime member of the Belfer Center board of directors, who passed away in the spring. Ernie had impeccable judgment about questions like these - not only intellectual acumen, but also a concern about the real world. As my colleague Joe Nye has said, he was an extraordinary model for what the Harvard Kennedy School is all about.
AP Photo
June 1, 2009
"A New Red Line For Iran"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
"The Iranian nuclear challenge was transformed on President George W. Bush's watch. Events in Iran have advanced faster than the policy community's thinking about the problem. The brute fact is that Iran has crossed a threshold that is painful to acknowledge but impossible to ignore: It has lost its nuclear virginity."
March 2009
"Keeping China and the United States Together"
Book Chapter
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
"In the twenty-first century, the United States and China are destined to be the largest and strongest powers in the international system. China's rise has been proclaimed to be "peaceful," but in a prior century the American rise was scarcely pacific. The United States threatened war with Canada and Britain and actuallt fought against Mexico, annexing nearly half of that country in 1848. China was also vigilant and quick to react in its neighborhood. as U.S. forces neared the Yalu River in October 1950, China intervened in the Korean War, even though the United States possessed nuclear weapons and beijing did not. Neither state has been relaxed in the presence of challenging neighbors."
AP Photo
July 19, 2008
"Bush's U-turn Toward Common Sense"
Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Graham Allison applauds the decision by the Bush administration to send U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns to the European Union meeting with Iran on Saturday (July 19). This "flip-flop toward reality," Allison says, "represents a major step in overcoming fierce internal struggles within the U.S. and Iran that had left both stuck at stalemate."
