IRAN
AP Photo
December 2012–January 2013
"Striking Iran: The Debate in Israel"
Journal Article, Survival, issue 6, volume 54
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"Although the unusual public nature and stridency of the debate struck many around the world, it is still hard for those abroad to understand how great the effect on the Israeli public has been. The Iranian nuclear programme had been the one consensual issue in an otherwise politically frenetic and deeply divided country and was dealt with, so the public believed, in a manner appropriate to the severity of the threat."
AP Images
November 27, 2012
Understanding the IAEA's Mandate in Iran: Avoiding Misinterpretations
Report
By Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, David Albright and Orde Kittrie
Much attention has focused on Iran's advancing nuclear program, on the peace and security concerns which that program has raised, and on the international policy debate over how to respond to that program. Far less attention has been paid to the various legal-sounding arguments used by Iran and a few academics to call into question the mandate of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to investigate and make determinations about actual or suspected violations of Iran’s legal obligations.
IAEA
November 5, 2012
"Iran's Nuclear Ambitions and Future Prospects"
Paper
By Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
International diplomacy efforts dealing with Iran’s nuclear program continue to fill the daily news headlines. The efforts of P5+1, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have tried, in various formats, to encourage and enforce Iran to comply with the provisions of the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is not used as a cover for the development of nuclear weapons. The challenge of discovering what has taken place as well as currently with Iran’s nuclear ambitions is difficult not only because of Tehran’s obstructionism, but also because the same nuclear technologies, particularly uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing, can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
November 1, 2012
"Obama's Failed Foreign Policy"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Eliot A. Cohen, Eric S. Edelman, Senior Associate, International Security Program and Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
"Because of the last four years, we face a world in which our enemies do not fear us, our friends do not believe they can trust us, and those who maneuver between the two camps feel that they will not get in trouble by crossing us. It is time, and more than time, to choose a different course."
October 2012
Strategy in the Second Nuclear Age: Power, Ambition, and the Ultimate Weapon
Book
By Toshi Yoshihara and John R. Holmes
Strategy in the Second Nuclear Age assembles a group of distinguished scholars to grapple with the matter of how the United States, its allies, and its friends must size up the strategies, doctrines, and force structures currently taking shape if they are to design responses that reinforce deterrence amid vastly more complex strategic circumstances.
October 30, 2012
"Iran: No 'Loose Cannon' in Jerusalem"
Op-Ed, The Jerusalem Post
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"The entire Israeli national security establishment, at all levels, has been deeply engaged on this issue since the early '90s. Indeed, it is hard to think of any other issue in Israel in recent decades that has been the subject of such extensive and careful attention. Regardless of what one thinks of the ultimate decision, it will not be for lack of painstaking consideration of the options."
October 29, 2012
"Russia, China on 'Wrong Side of History' in Arab World"
Op-Ed, Diplomat
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"China, a great power in the making, and Russia, a fading but nonetheless aspiring power, have repeatedly positioned themselves on 'the wrong side of history' in regard to the Iranian nuclear program, events in Syria, and more. Great power status confers not just prestige and influence, but also a need to share responsibility for international security and the 'global good.' With their uncaring pursuit of narrow national interests, neither is demonstrating a predilection to do so."
AP Photo
October 29, 2012
"Time to Get Tough on Iraq"
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Nussaibah Younis, Research Fellow, International Security Program
"...Mr. Maliki is not making an irrational choice in allowing assistance for the Assad regime next door. He is supporting an Iranian regime that brokered his own return to power, while also guarding against the possibility that the rise of a Sunni government in Syria could reignite the Iraqi civil war. So it is up to the United States to change Mr. Maliki's calculations to bring them in line with American interests."
October 22, 2012
Winners of Cuban Missile Crisis Lessons Contest Announced
Press Release
The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Foreign Policy Magazine have announced the winners and runners-up of the “Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis Contest,” held to mark the 50th anniversary of the crisis that narrowly averted nuclear war in October 1962.
October 22, 2012
"Is the Foreign Policy Debate Irrelevant?"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"A candidate's policy towards Iran, Afghanistan, or China will have to share center stage with the unpredicted, the incidental, and the utterly dramatic once he becomes president or wins a second term. The stylized theatrics of a debate stand in sharp contrast to the randomness of the world."
