STRATEGY AND NATIONAL SECURITY
December 6, 2012
"Refocus beyond Benghazi"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
Republicans continue to question this week about what UN Ambassador Susan Rice knew and when she knew it on Benghazi. A real debate would focus on what we must do to reinforce security at our embassies and consulates rather than argue over who said what in the days following the attacks. What Congress should also focus on are the increasingly serious challenges confronting us in the ever-volatile Middle East.
AP Photo
December 2012–January 2013
"Striking Iran: The Debate in Israel"
Journal Article, Survival, issue 6, volume 54
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
"Although the unusual public nature and stridency of the debate struck many around the world, it is still hard for those abroad to understand how great the effect on the Israeli public has been. The Iranian nuclear programme had been the one consensual issue in an otherwise politically frenetic and deeply divided country and was dealt with, so the public believed, in a manner appropriate to the severity of the threat."
December 3, 2012
"Biotechnology and Africa's Strategic Interests"
Op-Ed, Global Food For Thought
By Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa
"Biotechnology offers Africa a wider range of economic opportunities than the Green Revolution did. It is already being used to improve food production and establish or revive cotton production. Its economic impact is therefore likely to go well beyond the farm sector to include industrial development."
(Photo by Tom Fitzsimmons)
Winter 2012-2013
"Still Learning Fresh Lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications
Fifty years ago this October, as the Cuban Missile Crisis intensified, the world stood on the brink of a nuclear war. During 13 terrifying days in October 1962, people around the globe watched as President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev searched for a way to move their countries—and the world—away from the nuclear cliff.
The Belfer Center commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October by encouraging fresh thinking on lessons learned from that dangerous confrontation—and how those lessons can be applied to crises encountered today.
Winter 2012-2013
"Belfer Center Poll: Americans Have Strong Interest in Global Affairs"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
During the 2012 Presidential race, many took it for granted that foreign policy concerns were low on the list of issues important to the American people. However, a poll conducted by the Belfer Center, in conjunction with the Mellman Group, Hill Research Consultants, and Senior Fellow Mike Murphy, found that in Ohio and Florida, national security and foreign policy are still critical to voters.
Winter 2012-2013
"Cuban Missile Crisis Events Highlight Decision-Making"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
During October 2012, the Belfer Center remembered the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 with a series of events that highlighted the threat and lessons that leaders can take from the most dangerous moment in human history.
November 23, 2012
Syrian Rebels at Cross Purposes
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By David Ignatius, Senior Fellow, Future of Diplomacy Project
The Syrian opposition took a big step forward this month by forming a broad political coalition that includes local activists who started the revolution. But the opposition’s military command is still a mess, and until it’s fixed, jihadist extremists will keep getting more powerful.
November 2012
Zion's Dilemmas: How Israel Makes National Security Policy
Book
By Chuck Freilich, Senior Fellow, International Security Program
In Zion's Dilemmas, a former deputy national security adviser to the State of Israel details the history and, in many cases, the chronic inadequacies in the making of Israeli national security policy. The author uses his insider understanding and substantial archival and interview research to describe how Israel has made strategic decisions and to present a first of its kind model of national security decision-making in Israel. The book concludes with cogent and timely recommendations for reform.
November 2, 2012
"Lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis for Today’s Crises"
News
By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
In Harvard Professor Graham Allison’s view, “the significant unknowns” during the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly catapulted John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev into nuclear war. For former diplomat Nicholas Burns, the principal take-away from the crisis was the importance of giving an adversary a way out of a confrontation short of complete surrender. Allison and Burns were panelists on Oct. 14 at a forum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston to consider the modern lessons flowing from the missile crisis. The event kicked off an intensive series of seminars and workshops for scholars from Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs to mark the 50th anniversary of the missile crisis. Panel moderator Juliette Kayyem, Kennedy School lecturer in public policy, reminded the audience that the missile crisis is often framed through the myth of the tough American president staring down the Russian foe and making him blink. Kayyem said that version fails to capture the nuanced secret diplomacy and the American concessions that made a deal possible.
October 2012
"North Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program: Motivations, Strategy, and Doctrine"
Book Chapter
By Terence Roehrig, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom
Despite continuing efforts to convince North Korea to relinquish its nuclear capability, it appears increasingly unlikely that it will ever do so. Pyongyang might be willing to curtail or freeze certain parts of the program but the likelihood of North Korean denuclearization is quickly fading. With Pyongyang likely to retain some level of nuclear-weapons capability, analysis turns to an assessment of how these weapons might be integrated into its defense posture. Using deterrence theory as the analytical framework, this chapter examines possible avenues for North Korea's nuclear weapons strategy and doctrine.
