US FOREIGN POLICY
AP Images
June 18, 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.
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."
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?
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.
AP Photo/Fosphotos, Panayiotis Tzamaros
May 23, 2013
"The rise of hate"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
Professor Burns looks at the rise of far-right political movements gaining momentum in some European politics. He warns it would be a mistake not to take this seriously and to assume they are all harmless far-right crackpots.
May 21, 2013
"Is the Vision Thing Important?"
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"...[P]residents matter, but not exactly in the ways that leadership experts predict. Their expectation that transformational leaders make all the difference and incremental or transactional leaders are simply routine managers greatly oversimplifies the role of leadership."
AP Photo
May 21, 2013
"Obama Can Still Build 2nd Term Legacy"
Op-Ed, CNN.com
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Obama's first term was marked by the passage of health care legislation — unpopular with some, but a historic accomplishment that Democratic presidents have sought since the days of Harry Truman. The Democrats' loss of the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections has constrained Obama's ability to advance other transformational efforts on the domestic front, though some believe that, out of self-interest, the Republican Party may still allow bipartisan reform of immigration law during Obama's second term."
