NUCLEAR ISSUES
Winter 2006
"Pakistan Through the Lens of the 'Triple A' Theory"
Journal Article, The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, issue 1, volume 30
By Hassan Abbas, Former Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"How has a state whose founding fathers were secular people who believed in rule of law and democracy drifted toward religious extremism and authoritarianism? Three primary factors—variations on the Triple A theory of influence (Allah, the Army, and America)—have led Pakistan down this path: a powerful independent military, the mushrooming of religious militant groups, and the hydra-headed monster that is the intelligence services."
November 2005
"A Failure to Communicate: American Public Diplomacy and the Islamic World"
Book Chapter
By Hassan Abbas, Former Senior Advisor, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Summer 2007
"Correspondence: Does Terrorism Ever Work? The 2004 Madrid Train Bombings"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 32
By William Rose, Rysia Murphy and Max Abrahms, Former Research Associate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
William Rose and Rysia Murphy reply to Max Abrahms's fall 2006 International Security article, "Why Terrorism Does Not Work."
Fall 2006
"Why Terrorism Does Not Work"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 2, volume 31
By Max Abrahms, Former Research Associate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Terrorism may be a choice method of political coercion at the moment, but this study finds that it is not very successful. Terrorists who attack civilian populations rather than military targets fail to achieve their policy objectives, because countries whose populations are victims of massive terrorist violence are highly unlikely to negotiate, let alone make political concessions, with terrorists whose actions imply that they will not compromise.
Winter 2003/04
"Attack and Conquer? International Anarchy and the Offense-Defense-Deterrence Balance"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 28
Karen Ruth Adams lays out the technological causes of offense, defense, and deterrence dominance and assesses the ability of these factors to explain attack and conquest among great powers and nuclear states from 1800 to 1997.
April 30, 2012
"Iran, Netanyahu and the Holocaust"
Op-Ed, Veterans Today
By Arshin Adib-Moghaddam and Abbas Maleki, Associate, International Security Program
"There are Stars of David publicly displayed in Tehran of course, for instance on the walls and signs of the Beheshtieh Jewish cemetery where dozens of holocaust victims are buried. In Tehran today there are 18 synagogues, several kosher butchers, Jewish schools and a Jewish hospital. Comparable conditions exist in other cities with a sizeable Jewish community. The situation for all minorities in Iran is far from perfect, but the Islamic Republic guarantees the political representation of the Jewish community in the Iranian parliament, a political right that is codified in the Iranian constitution."
August 20, 2012
"Why West Should Curb Hostility To Non-Aligned Summit in Tehran"
Op-Ed, Al-Monitor
By Abbas Maleki, Associate, International Security Program and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
"...[T]he various implications of the NAM summit and Iran's NAM presidency — for regional stability, conflict mediation and a greater Iranian role as a responsible international actor, among others — need to be taken into consideration in the West, as part and parcel of a more prudent and nuanced Western approach toward Iran, instead of one that is dependent on coercive diplomacy."
December 5, 2007
"The View from Iran"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Kaveh L. Afrasiabi and Kayhan Barzegar, Former Associate, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program, 2010–2011; Former Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/international Security Program, 2007–2010
"...With the United States and Iran poised for a fourth round of dialogue on Iraq's security, and the latest IAEA report confirming Iran's steady cooperation and increasing nuclear transparency, the stage is now set for a thaw in the hitherto hostile US-Iran relations.
Both sides should heed the call by the head of IAEA, Mohammad ElBaradei, to use the intelligence report as the basis for a comprehensive dialogue geared toward normalization."
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."
