NUCLEAR WEAPONS
AP Photo
June 13, 2012
"Iran: The Solution Is There But the Trust Is Not"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Though military action, with its unpredictable consequences, is to be avoided at all costs, there is very little chance under present circumstances of the above solution being realized. That is why a number of observers of the Iranian scene are advocating the choice of an intermediary, trusted by both sides, to attempt to break the current impasse."
June 12, 2012
Nuclear Security's Top Priority
Op-Ed, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
By Eben Harrell, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
In the past two decades, at least two terrorist groups have made serious attempts at obtaining nuclear weapons or the nuclear material needed to make them. They won't be the last. Foiling terrorists willing to inflict unlimited damage requires the international community to prioritize the nuclear stocks that pose the greatest risks and take immediate steps to eliminate or secure them.
AP Photo
June 11, 2012
"Iran Nuclear Talks: What to Do in Moscow"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By John Tirman and Abbas Maleki, Associate, International Security Program
"...[S]hould the negotiations fail, a war with Iran would be catastrophic. The United States has not only been down that road with Iraq, but now is a fragile moment in many Arab countries, in Afghanistan and Pakistan as well, where a war against Iran could produce enormous repercussions — boosting the prospects of the most militant factions — which last for a generation or more. A war would also spike oil prices to all-time highs and demolish hopes for economic recovery here, Europe, Japan, and indeed everywhere else."
June 11, 2012
"The Special Senate Committee on Anti-terrorism"
Testimony
By William H. Tobey, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom and Simon Saradzhyan, Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
On June 11, 2012, the Belfer Center's William Tobey, Matthew Bunn and Simon Saradzhyan testified before Canada's upper house of parliament, the Senate, on the threat of nuclear terrorism and strategies to combat it.
June 6, 2012
"Obama's 'Secret Wars' Against America's Threats"
News
By David E. Sanger, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
David Sanger, senior fellow at the Belfer Center and adjunct lecturer in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, was interviewed on NPR’s “On Point” about his new book on President Obama’s foreign policy efforts, including a cybercampaign against Iran’s nuclear program. Sanger’s book, Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power, was published this week.
May 31, 2012
"Iran's Growing Stockpile"
Op-Ed, Foreign Policy
By Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
“The latest chess match between Iran and six major powers in Baghdad ended last week without any declared breakthrough. This is not entirely surprising. Talks were unlikely to make significant headway with Iran offering to sacrifice a pawn -- 20 percent enriched uranium -- in exchange for the queen -- the lifting of oil sanctions,” Olli Heinonen, former deputy director-general of the IAEA and senior fellow at the Belfer Center, writes in a Foreign Policy op-ed. “In the meantime, the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) report on Iran, released May 25, reveals new information, most notably the presence of uranium particles enriched to 27 percent, well above the declared 20 percent enrichment level at the Fordow underground enrichment plant. Right now, the key question that the IAEA is trying to answer is how much uranium was enriched to 27 percent and over what period of time the enrichment took place.”
Press TV
May 28, 2012
"Prospects for a WMD-Free Zone in the Middle East"
Op-Ed, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
By Martin B. Malin, Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom
As negotiations with Iran over the future of its nuclear program inch toward a possible deal, another intractable Middle East problem with a nuclear dimension is likely to start getting more serious attention. It is the question of whether there is any chance that Israel, Iran, and their Arab neighbors will agree to discuss establishing a regional zone free of all nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and their delivery systems. After decades of backsliding, proliferation, and conflict in the Middle East, the conventional wisdom says the current round of efforts will fail. I think the conventional wisdom is wrong.
May 22, 2012
"IAEA Inspections in Perspective"
Presentation
By Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Olli Heinonen, senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center, presented the paper "What the IAEA Could do to Detect Clandestine Nuclear Activities" at a conference focused on "Reassessing the Assumptions Driving Our Current Nuclear Nonproliferation Policies," hosted by the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC) on May 21, 2012.
Mark Wilson/Getty
May 21, 2012
"How To Avoid a War with Iran"
Op-Ed, Foreign Policy
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom and Abbas Maleki, Associate, International Security Program
Observers would be forgiven for dismissing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program as Kabuki theater. Despite years of on-again, off-again efforts, after all, fears of war continue to simmer. Such frustrations are understandable -- but they may not be entirely justified.
(AP Photo/Iranian President's Office)
May 24, 2012
"How Close is Iran to Exploding its First Nuclear Bomb?"
Op-Ed, Scientific American
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Belfer Center Director Graham Allison writes in Scientific American that while it is unclear whether Iran has decided to develop a nuclear weapon, it has over the past decade been "cautiously, but steadily, putting in place all the elements it needs to construct a nuclear weapon in short order."
Allison argues that the best way to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb might be to "aggressively explore the offer made by Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last fall to end all enrichment beyond LEU in exchange for the purchase of fuel for its Tehran Research Reactor."
