STRATEGY AND NATIONAL SECURITY
August 22, 2008
Memo to President-elect McBama
Memorandum, Aspen Strategy Group
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
Graham Allison writes in a memo to a fictional President-elect McBama on the suject of nuclear terrorism, "You pledged that you would make preventing this catastrophe an organizing principle of your administration. This memo provides a brief outline of strategy and organization to fulfill that promise."
August 14, 2008
"Strengthening our Strategy Against WMD"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Harvard & Stanford Universities and The Honorable Robert G. Joseph, Senior Scholar, National Institute for Public Policy
Dr. Ashton B. Carter and Ambassador Robert G. Joseph discuss recommendations stemming from recommendations in final report of the review they co-chaired of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and other DOD efforts to counter weapons of mass destruction.
July 2008
Terrorism: What the Next President will Face: The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Book, volume 618
The July 2008 edition of the ANNALS of the American Academcy of Political and Social Science. It includes eighteen chapters discussing a wide range of topics relating to terrorism, including Al Qaeda, Iran, andcounterterrorism intelligence.
Summer 2008
"How American Treaty Behavior Threatens National Security"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 33
In recent years, American treaty behavior has produced growing concern among both allies and less friendly nations. On such fundamental issues as nuclear proliferation, terrorism, human rights, civil liberties, environmental disasters, and commerce, the United States has generated confusion and anger abroad. Such a climate is not conducive to needed cooperation in the conduct of foreign and security policy. Among U.S. actions that have caused concern are the failure to ratify several treaties; the attachment of reservations, understandings, and declarations before ratification; the failure to support a treaty regime once ratified; and treaty withdrawal. The structural and historical reasons for American treaty behavior are deeply rooted in the United States' system of government and do not merely reflect superpower arrogance.
AP Photo
July 8, 2008
"Peace with Syria?"
Op-Ed, Human Events
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"...While it is clear that withdrawal is the price of peace, disagreement over the Golan's precise delineation is what led to the talks' failure in the past. Syria demands a return to the 1967 lines, Israel to the 1923 mandatory border.
Under the 1923 demarcation, the recognized basis for all Mideast negotiations, the Golan ends just meters east of the Jordan River and Sea of Galilee. Between 1948 and 1967, however, Syria encroached upon Israeli territory, with two enclaves along the Jordan and a strip on the lake’s northeastern shore. The 1967 lines would thus give Syria more than 100% of the internationally recognized Golan, a claim to the lake's water and end full Israeli access around it...."
AP Photo
June 30, 2008
"The Path through Pakistan to a Shorter War on Terror"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Christian Science Monitor
By Xenia Dormandy, Senior Associate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
In the 'epicenter of terrorism,' democracy will benefit from an ease in US military pressure.
June 22 - July 1, 2008
Report of the Strategic Security Issues Delegation to Taiwan and the People's Republic of China (PRC)
Report
By Dr. William J. Perry, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Admiral (ret.) Joseph W. Prueher, Senior Advisor, Preventive Defense Project, Ambassador Robert D. Blackwill, International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Harvard & Stanford Universities, Stephen A. Orlins, President, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Dr. David M. Lampton, Director, China Studies, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Kurt M. Campbell, CEO and Founder, Center for a New American Security, Dr. Ashley Tellis, Dr. Evan Medeiros, Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation and Jan Berris, Vice-President, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations
Full text of the trip report from PDP's Track II meetings in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China (PRC).
May 6, 2008
"U.S. Worry Grows over Pakistan's Tribal Peace Deal"
Media Feature
By Xenia Dormandy, Senior Associate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Jackie Northam of NPR interviews Xenia Dormandy, Director of the Project on India and the Subcontinent, regarding the new Pakistani government's negotiations with militants tied to al Qaeda.
AP Photo
May 5, 2008
Preventing Terrorist Attacks: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom
Policy Memo
By Erik J. Dahl, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program
Why do terrorist attacks frequently succeed, even though later investigations almost always show that warnings had been available but were either misunderstood or ignored? Conventional wisdom, as seen in the 9/11 Commission Report, holds that disasters such as the 9/11 attacks have been caused by failures of analytical imagination, a lack of long-term strategic intelligence on the threat, and organizational limitations that prevent the U.S. intelligence community from being able to “connect the dots” of the existing intelligence.
Image Credit: Martha Stewart
April 28, 2008
PDP Co-Director Carter Participates in Harvard Oil Shockwave Simulation
Press Release
PDP Co-Director Carter participates in a high-profile crisis simulation examining the economic and security implications of America’s dependency on oil.
