IRAQ WAR
September 26, 2007
"How to Build US-Iran Relations"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Abbas Maleki, Associate, International Security Program and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
"...Iran has not suspended its uranium enrichment program, but it has not ignored the UN Security Council resolutions on Iran either, as can be discerned in the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency citing "significant progress" in Iran-IAEA cooperation. With the United States and Iran talking in Iraq and Iran-IAEA cooperation yielding concrete results in terms of Iran's nuclear transparency, the stage is potentially set for de-escalating the US-Iran tensions, particularly if both sides adopt a long-term view and sort out the security dimension."
September 21, 2007
"U.S., Iran Need to Build Confidence"
Op-Ed, San Francisco Chronicle
By Abbas Maleki, Associate, International Security Program and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
"...the stage is set for a thaw in U.S.-Iran relations. With sufficient political will on both sides, Washington and Tehran can achieve this by adopting concrete confidence-building measures and by imposing a mutually agreed-upon moratorium on demonizing each other."
October 21, 2010
No Ordinary Times Says Pakistan Foreign Minister
Media Feature
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke Monday night at the John F. Kennedy, Jr., Forum of the critical need to reverse the animosity Pakistanis feel toward the United States. A recent survey, he said, showed overwhelmingly that the Pakistani people don’t consider the United States a friend, but an enemy.
Summer 2013
"Nussaibah Younis: Foreign Policies of Weak States Matter"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
The invasion of Iraq prompted a deluge of work written on the country from a U.S. perspective, but Nussaibah Younis, a fellow with the Belfer Center's International Security Program, wants people to start considering Iraq as an actor in its own right. While at the Center, Younis is working on a project that seeks to understand internal Iraqi foreign policymaking dynamics since 2003.
May 2, 2013
"Why Maliki Must Go"
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Nussaibah Younis, Research Fellow, International Security Program
"...Mr. Maliki, who took office in 2006, had a successful first term, he has squandered the opportunity to heal the nation in his second term, which began in 2010. He has taken a hard sectarian line on security and political challenges. He has resisted integrating Sunnis into the army. He has accused senior Sunni politicians of being terrorists, hounded them from power and lost the cooperation of the Sunni community. The result: the political bargain that had sustained the fragile Iraqi state broke down."
April 8, 2013
"Take Burden off Veterans Affairs"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Long-neglected computer upgrades are coming on line, but the VA's promises that the backlog will be overcome by 2015 seem specious given that 97 percent of all claims are still made in paper. Continued delays aren't only concerns for those who've already fought. They could discourage new recruits. The Defense Department is well aware that its ability to recruit troops to an all-volunteer force is made more difficult if veterans' services are being neglected."
Spring 2013
"International Security Journal Highlights"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
International Security is America’s leading journal of security affairs. It provides sophisticated analyses of contemporary security issues and discusses their conceptual and historical foundations. The journal is edited at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and published quarterly by the MIT Press.
March 21, 2013
"Triste Anniversaire"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"...[T]his was a useless war, conceived under the mistaken pretext that Saddam was in possession of weapons of mass destruction and resulting in untold sacrifices of dead and wounded on all sides."
March 20, 2013
"'Iran is the Main Beneficiary of the Iraq War'"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, The European
By Max Tholl and Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs; Faculty Chair, International Security Program
"Iran has always been a major power in that region. Under Saddam however, Iran and Iraq were bitter enemies who fought a long war and were strongly opposed to one another. There was almost a rough balance of power between the two countries. By reducing Iraq's power and by allowing the Shia to become the dominant political force in Iraq, the US removed the main country balancing Iran, and helped bring to power a government that has at least some sympathies and links to Iran. So, Iran is by far the main strategic beneficiary of the Iraq War, which made it even more difficult for the US and its allies to deal with the country."
March 18, 2013
"A War's Misleading Anniversary"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"The narrative of the Iraq war has a prologue and an epilogue whose lessons are as valuable to the United States as those derived from what came in between. As for the prelude, defenders of the war have somehow successfully rewritten the story to ignore the fact that many scholars, journalists, and defense specialists were urging President Bush not to succumb to this folly."
