advanced search ›

Belfer Center Home > Topics > Nuclear Issues

NUCLEAR ISSUES

Africa

AP Photo

Fall 2009

"Energy for Change: Introduction to the Special Issue on Energy & Climate Change"

Journal Article, Innovations, issue 4, volume 4

By John P. Holdren, Former Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program

"Without energy, there is no economy. Without climate, there is no environment. Without economy and environment, there is no material well-being, no civil society, no personal or national security. The overriding problem associated with these realities, of course, is that the world has long been getting most of the energy its economies need from fossil fuels whose emissions are imperiling the climate that its environment needs."

Winter 2008-09

Belfer Center Newsletter Winter 2008-09

Newsletter

By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications

The Winter 2008-09 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming research, activities, and analysis by Center faculty, fellows, and staff on critical global issues. "What should the next president do first?" is a question raised in this issue. Belfer Center experts respond to the question with advice on what they consider priority issues of national security, climate/energy policy, and the economic crisis.

The Winter 2008-09 issue also features take-aways from the Center’s recent “Acting in Time on Energy Policy” conference hosted by the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group. In addition, it spotlights Belfer Center Faculty Affiliate Richard Clarke and new Kennedy School Professor Nicholas Burns.

Summer 2008

"Divining Nuclear Intentions: A Review Essay"

Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 33

By William C. Potter and Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova

Although projections of nuclear proliferation abound, they rarely are founded on empirical research or guided by theory. Even fewer studies are informed by a comparative perspective. The two books under review—The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions, and Foreign Policy, by Jacques Hymans, and Nuclear Logics: Alternative Paths in East Asia and the Middle East, by Etel Solingen, are welcome exceptions to this general state of affairs, and represent the cutting edge of nonproliferation research. Both works challenge conventional conceptions of the sources of nuclear weapons decisions and offer new insights into why past predictions of rapid proliferation failed to materialize and why current prognoses about rampant proliferation are similarly flawed. While sharing a number of common features, including a focus on subsystemic determinants of national behavior, the books differ in their methodology, level of analysis, receptivity to multicausal explanations, and assumptions about decisionmaker rationality and the revolutionary nature of the decision. Where one author emphasizes the importance of the individual leader’s national identity conception in determining a state’s nuclear path, the other explains nuclear decisions primarily with regard to the political-economic orientation of the ruling coalition. Notwithstanding a tendency to overinterpret evidence, the books represent the best of contemporary social science research and provide compelling interpretations of nuclear proliferation dynamics of great relevance to scholars and policymakers alike.

November 14, 2007

Global Forecast: The Top Security Challenges of 2008

Report

By Carola McGiffert and Craig Cohen

This volume of essays showcases CSIS's collective wisdom on the most important security issues facing America in 2008—the major political, military, and economic challenges likely to have strategic implications for the nation. Some of these challenges depend on political developments in other countries, while others hinge on U.S. actions. Some are regional in focus; others have transnational or global reach. All have the potential to expand into full-scale crises and must be watched and managed carefully.

September 8, 2007

Power and Sanctions or Law and Life?

Magazine or Newspaper Article

By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative

The United Nations should thoroughly review its optimum role in a transforming world, because its existing contradictory policies risk damaging its credibility and efficacy for years to come.

October 19, 2006

US Silence Is Deadly

Op-Ed, Boston Globe

By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution

WASHINGTON needs to learn to talk, listen, and engage more and condemn less.

August 31, 2006

"Globalization and its Effects: Introduction and Overview"

Book Chapter

By Richard N. Rosecrance, Adjunct Professor; Senior Fellow, International Security Program; Director, Project on U.S.-China Relations, Etel Solingen and Arthur A. Stein

"Globalization has the effect of incapacitating states as autonomous units."

Winter 2005-06

"Notable Quotes"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter

Notable quotes from opeds and testimonies.

March, 2005

Combating Terrorism in the Horn of Africa and Yemen

Report

By Debbie West, Former Program Coordinator, Intrastate Conflict Program

Winter 2004-05

Belfer Center Newsletter Winter 2004-05

Newsletter

By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications

The Winter 2004-05 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter highlights a range of Center research activities ranging from climate change to counterterrorism efforts.

Nuclear Experts

see all nuclear researchers ›

Securing the Bomb 2008

Securing the Bomb 2008

Associate Professor of Public Policy and Project on Managing the Atom Co-Principal Investigator Matthew Bunn provides a comprehensive assessment of efforts to secure and remove vulnerable nuclear stockpiles around the world, and a detailed action plan for reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism. Securing the Bomb 2008 was commissioned by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). The full report, with additional information on the threat of nuclear terrorism, is available on the NTI website.

International Security

The Summer 2009 issue of the quarterly journal International Security is now available. It includes articles by Matthew Fuhrmann, Elizabeth Stanley, Daniel Lake, Christopher Layne, and more.

Journal homepage ›

Most Viewed: Nuclear

more publications ›

EMAIL UPDATES

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe

Graham Allison, founding dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a former top official at the Pentagon, and one of America’s leading scholars of nuclear strategy and national security, presents the evidence and argument that led him to two provocative conclusions: a nuclear terrorist attack on an American city is inevitable on our current course and speed, but preventable if we act now.

Managing the Atom

The Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) conducts and disseminates policy-relevant research on nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, and nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

Managing the Atom homepage ›

Preventive Defense Project

The Preventive Defense Project (PDP) is a Harvard-Stanford research collaboration, co-directed by Ashton B. Carter and William J. Perry.

Preventive Defense Project homepage ›

Policy Brief

Speaking about the Unspeakable: U.S.-Israeli Dialogue on Iran's Nuclear Program

Despite the longstanding and ever-evolving "special relationship" between the United States and Israel, the two allies do not appear to have engaged in substantive discussions on key facets of their most pressing mutual concern, the Iranian nuclear threat. Specifically, there has been little if any dialogue on the possibility of military action if the diplomatic route comes to a dead end, nor on the possible means of living with a nuclear Iran should both countries decide to refrain from military action.