NUCLEAR ISSUES
AP Images
February 3, 2012
Belfer Center Perspectives On Iran
In the News
As debate over Iran's nuclear program intensifies, Belfer Center experts on Iran have been interviewed and quoted in numerous media reports and have written opinion pieces on the issues involved. Here are recent published perspectives.
February 2, 2012
The U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism Newsletter: December 2011 - January 2012
Newsletter
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism Newsletter is a forum for discussing nuclear terrorism and actions to contribute to improved joint US-Russian assessment of the threat of nuclear terrorism. Available in both English and Russian.
AP Photo
February 2, 2012
"Israel's Profound Choice on Iran"
Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"So herein lies the dilemma: a potential risk to the nation's existence versus the uncertain results of military action, the likelihood of a devastating Iranian/Hezbollah response, the risk of an end to the peace with Egypt and even a military confrontation and regional war, severe international opprobrium and a partial rift with the United States."
(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
January 30, 2012
"A Real Debate About Iran"
Op-Ed, Foreign Policy
By Shai Feldman, Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Shlomo Brom and Shimon Stein
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested recently that Israel's moment of decision on Iran would come not when it obtained nuclear weapons but, instead, how close Iran is to entering what he called "a zone of immunity." Barak's concern was that beyond this threshold it would no longer be possible to halt Iran's nuclear program.
January 27, 2012
Russia in Review
Media Feature
A digest of useful news from U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism for the week of January 20-27, 2012.
December 2011
"Attacking Iran: Lessons from the Iran-Iraq War"
Policy Brief
By Annie Tracy Samuel, Research Fellow, International Security Program
This policy brief seeks to contribute to and inform the debate concerning a possible attack by the United States and/or Israel on Iranian nuclear and military facilities. The presumed aim of such an attack would be to weaken the Islamic Republic, particularly by hindering its ability to build a nuclear weapon. However, the history of the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980 calls into question the contention that an attack will weaken the regime in Tehran. This policy brief examines Iran's reactions to the Iraqi invasion in order to shed light on Iran's possible reactions to a U.S. or Israeli attack.
January 20, 2012
What to do about Iran
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By R. Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
In this op-ed piece, Professor Nicholas Burns stresses the importance of keeping negotiations and diplomacy, rather than the threat of force, at the forefront of U.S. strategy in dealing with Iran.
January 19, 2012
"Stopping the Clock"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"...[W]hen the smart scientists decided to add global warming and biological harms to the clock's matrix in 2007, their previous laser focus on nuclear Armageddon lost its impact. Their explanation of why things have gotten one minute worse is a laundry list that includes nuclear proliferation, Iran, Japan's nuclear disaster and its effects on nuclear power investments, carbon emissions, and virulent strains of viruses that can be used for lethal purposes."
AP Photo
January 17, 2012
"Not Another War, Please!"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Apart from the question, never asked and never answered, as to why Iran cannot have nuclear weapons while India and Pakistan can, there is the lassitude that has set in over the successive wars in Afghanistan — which has lasted much too long — and Iraq — which has been essentially fruitless. A new war is certainly to be avoided, if possible."
January 16, 2012
The Defensive Nature of China's "Underground Great Wall"
Op-Ed, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
By Hui Zhang, Senior Research Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
A study by Georgetown University's Phillip Karber claims that a vast network of tunnels in China, often called the "underground great wall," could hide up to 3,000 nuclear weapons. Writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Hui Zhang argues that the study leaps to unwarranted conclusions based on simplistic reasoning and questionable extrapolation from decades-old estimates of Chinese weapon levels. New information on fissile materials inventories and other authoritative data indicate that China has a nuclear arsenal of a few hundred weapons and that the underground great wall is meant to protect this small deterrent from a first strike.
