NUCLEAR WEAPONS
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.
Winter 2005-06
"Notable Quotes"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
Notable quotes from opeds and testimonies.
October 21, 2002
Why Stop With Iraq?
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
If the US persists in enforcing regime change in Iraq, why not do so in every country where the ruler is odious and grossly mistreats his or her people?
2002
Iran’s Nuclear Policy and the IAEA – An Evaluation of Program 93+2
Book
By Chen Zak Kane, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
In this book, Ms. Zak asserts that the Islamic Republic of Iran provides a good test case for evaluating the implementation of Program 93+2. She examines whether this new verification system would permit the identification of Iranian nuclear weapons development and whether a regional agreement might ultimately prove to be a more effective option for the Middle East.
2002
Iran’s Nuclear Policy and the IAEA – An Evaluation of Program 93+2
Book
By Chen Zak Kane, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
In this book, Ms. Zak asserts that the Islamic Republic of Iran provides a good test case for evaluating the implementation of Program 93+2. She examines whether this new verification system would permit the identification of Iranian nuclear weapons development and whether a regional agreement might ultimately prove to be a more effective option for the Middle East.
September 6, 2006
"Conclusion: Seven Lessons Learned from the Fog of Peace"
Book Chapter
By Talbot C. Imlay and Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy
"...the fog of peace can never be entirely pierced. Flexibility and constant cultivation of the ability to question received wisdom and to reconsider assumptions are the best security against catastrophic failure in a future war, regardless of whether that war resembles a more traditional interstate war or the current war on terror."
September 2006
The Fog of Peace and War Planning: Military and Strategic Planning under Uncertainty
Book
By Talbot C. Imlay and Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy
This volume sets out to examine and analyse how governments and military organizations planned for an uncertain and potentially threatening future during four different peacetime periods spanning from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the aftermath of the Second World War.
September 6, 2006
"Strategic and Military Planning under the Fog of Peace"
Book Chapter
By Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Talbot C. Imlay
"...in their scope and diversity, the cases provide an excellent overview of the challenges confronting military planners over the last two hundred years."
September 6, 2006
"From the Fall of France to the Force de Frappe: the Remaking of French Military Power, 1940-62"
Book Chapter
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"...de Gaulle had a longer-term view of France's potential foes than most military officers, which allowed him to see beyond the immediate needs of colonial wars."
