INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Reuters
Forthcoming July 14, 2013
"Suspension of Nuclear Activities Is Not End of Diversion Risks"
Conference Paper
By David Nusbaum, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
A long-standing goal of diplomacy with Iran is persuading Iran to suspend its enrichment operations while it clarifies its past activities and while negotiations proceed on a more permanent resolution to the nuclear crisis. However, there is problem in using suspension of nuclear material production as a negotiating step: The technical details of suspension have never been clearly defined. The international community needs to be aware of the diversion risks during a suspension of enrichment activities and should mitigate these risks by including the necessary verification measures during negotiations and signing of any agreement on suspension.
White House Photo
June 12, 2013
"A Smarter Way to Deal with China"
Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"In meeting many of the new transnational challenges, the U.S. has to get away from thinking just about power over others and think about power with others. We do not want to become so fearful that we are not able to find ways to cooperate with China."
AP Images
June 11, 2013
Belfer Center Perspectives On Iran
In the News
As debate over Iran's nuclear program intensifies, Belfer Center experts on Iran have been interviewed and quoted in numerous media reports and have written opinion pieces on the issues involved. Here are recent published perspectives.
Jun 10, 2013
"On Iran's Nuclear Program, Obama Should Take a Cue From JFK and 'Go First'"
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
"Fifty years ago, President John F. Kennedy delivered a commencement address at American University whose message echoes down the decades to the challenges America faces today – including the challenge of Iran."
Jun 10, 2013
"Bold Initiatives to Reduce Tensions – 50 Years Ago and Today"
Op-Ed, Power & Policy Blog
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
"The fundamental idea that conciliatory actions can help overcome mistrust and misperceptions is as applicable today as it was a half century ago. And certainly the U.S.-Iranian standoff is one of many challenges desperately in need of an approach for beginning to roll back the distorted perceptions that make it so difficult to find whether any genuine common ground exists."
June 6, 2013
"Obama and Xi Must Think Broadly to Avoid a Classic Trap"
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
"As President Obama welcomes China’s new president, Xi Jinping, for an informal “shirt-sleeves” summit meeting in California on Friday, the bureaucracies of both governments must be quivering...
Let us hope that these two leaders will rise above their bureaucracies’ narrow goals to confront the overarching challenge facing the two most important nations in the world.
Simply put, can the United States and China escape Thucydides Trap?
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
June 5, 2013
Former Belfer Center Staffer Tapped for U.S. Envoy to the United Nations
News
By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Samantha Power, the former project director of the Human Rights Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs who went on to become a senior foreign policy adviser to President Obama, was nominated today to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The President announced Power’s nomination in a ceremony at the White House, in which he also appointed current U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to be his new national security adviser, succeeding Tom Donilon.
June 5, 2013
Stephen W. Bosworth Joins Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center as Senior Fellow
News
By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth, who transformed Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy during his 12 years as dean, is joining Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a senior fellow. Belfer Center Director Graham Allison said Bosworth would bring to the Kennedy School a wealth of experience as a career diplomat, with a long focus on Asia and the Korean peninsula, areas of intense interest for the Belfer Center.
Associated Press
June 5, 2013
"US is Syria’s only hope"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
Given the recent surge of assistance being given to the Assad regime by Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia, Professor Burns sees this as a call to action for US intervention, which, he argues, may be Syria's only hope at this point.
International Monetary Fund
June 3, 2013
"Conditioning the Arab Transition"
Op-Ed, Project Syndicate
By Ishac Diwan, Lecturer in Public Policy, Middle East Initiative and Hedi Larbi
"While short-term pain is not unusual following the end of despotic regimes, long and protracted transitions can be terribly costly, requiring decades for societies to recover. Political impasse is not only depressing economies by discouraging trade and investment; it is also preventing the formation of governments that could implement much-needed economic and institutional reforms – and thus threatening to take these countries into a long downward spiral."
