NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION
AP Images
January 12, 2012
"The 20 Percent Solution"
Op-Ed, Foreign Policy
By Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
On Monday, Jan. 9, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran had begun producing 20 percent enriched uranium at Fordow, a fuel enrichment plant buried deep underground near the holy city of Qom. On the surface, there is little new here: Since February 2010, Iran has been producing 20 percent enriched uranium at Natanz, another once-secret site located about 3 ½ hours from Tehran.
AP Photo
January/ February 2012
"Nuclear Scientists as Assassination Targets"
Journal Article, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, issue 1, volume 68
By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Since 2007, international media have reported the violent deaths of four scientists and engineers connected with Iran’s nuclear program and an attempt on the life of a fifth. The news reports on such killings are murky, incomplete, and, in some instances, likely inaccurate...
Winter 2012
Reducing Nuclear Dangers
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Issues in Science and Technology, issue 2, volume 28
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
Matthew Bunn reviewed Ron Rosenbaum's How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III for Issues in Science and Technology, arguing that Rosenbaum is right to be alarmed, but misses both some of the most important threats and some of the most compelling solutions that would help make the world safer.
December 20, 2011
Pyongyang's Proliferation
Op-Ed, Time
By Eben Harrell, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
Eben Harrell published an op-ed on TIME.com about Kim Jong Il's nuclear proliferation legacy.
December 20, 2011
"Mutually Assured Stability"
Op-Ed, Moscow Times
By Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Fall 1991 saw U.S. and Soviet leaders display goodwill by pledging to unilaterally consolidate and reduce their nations' arsenals of tactical nuclear weapons in what became the last milestone in the history of U.S.-Soviet arms control....Twenty years after, however, the two countries still have thousands of tactical nuclear weapons outside any of the existing international arms control regimes," writes Simon Saradzhyan
December 15, 2011
"Comrades, we're in a defensive arms race with Russia-- but it isn't a bad thing."
Op-Ed, Foreign Policy "The Best Defense" Blog
By Kevin Ryan, Director, Defense and Intelligence Project, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Russian leaders have previously promised to improve the survivability of their offensive nuclear missile force as a means of ensuring that they would retain an effective nuclear deterrent, and that will likely happen. But recent events and announcements indicate that Russia is also investing money in its own increased missile defenses.
October 2011
Our Own Worst Enemy? Institutional Interests and the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Expertise
Book
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many observers feared that terrorists and rogue states would obtain weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or knowledge about how to build them from the vast Soviet nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons complex. The United States launched a major effort to prevent former Soviet WMD experts, suddenly without salaries, from peddling their secrets. In Our Own Worst Enemy, Sharon Weiner chronicles the design, implementation, and evolution of four U.S. programs that were central to this nonproliferation policy and assesses their successes and failures.
Winner of the 2012 Louis Brownlow Book Award
December 5, 2011
Paul Doty, 1920-2011
News
Paul Doty, the founder of the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, died today at the age of 91.
Paul Doty devoted his life to harnessing science for peaceful and productive service to mankind, and averting nuclear war.
November 2011
"Nuclear Policy Gridlock in Japan"
Policy Brief
The historical growth in the number and variety of Japanese nuclear veto players has made the country an extreme case of stasis in fundamental nuclear policies. Japan is not the only country to experience this phenomenon, however. In many advanced industrialized democracies, the old Manhattan Project model of top-down, centralized, and secretive nuclear institutions has gradually given way to more complex arrangements. And as a general rule, the more numerous the veto players, the harder the struggle to achieve major nuclear policy change.
Winter 2011-2012
Belfer Center Newsletter Winter 2011-2012
Newsletter
By Sharon Wilke, Associate Director of Communications
The Winter 2011-2012 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features news, analysis and insight by Belfer Center scholars on issues that include increasingly important info-tech policy challenges and the first U.S.-Russian joint threat assessment on nuclear terrorism. The Center’s deepening impact on defense policy is highlighted with an article about the recent appointments of Ashton B. Carter and Eric Rosenbach to senior Pentagon posts and a Q&A with Carter, the new deputy secretary of defense. Additional articles focus on issues ranging from the Palestinian bid for statehood to Calestous Juma’s role in Lagos’ launch of the first innovation advisory council in Africa.
