NUCLEAR STOCKPILE SECURITY
December 20, 2012
"IAEA’s Integral Role in Ending the Iranian Nuclear Crisis"
Op-Ed, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
By Olli Heinonen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Mark Hibbs
There is a small opening to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis after the conclusion of the U.S. presidential election, write Mark Hibbs and Olli Heinonen. "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called this a 'window of opportunity,' and it is beginning to focus minds on identifying the necessary components of a package deal that will put Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and UN Security Council powers squarely on a path toward conflict resolution."
October 19, 2012
Winners Announced for Cuban Missile Crisis Lessons Contest
News
On the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and Foreign Policy Magazine invited policymakers, scholars, students, and members of the public to propose 300-word lessons for today’s leaders from the 13 days in 1962 when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. Today, the Belfer Center and Foreign Policy are pleased to announce the winners of the Cuban Missile Crisis lessons contest.
October 11, 2012
"Whom Would You Call?"
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By David Ignatius, Senior Fellow, Future of Diplomacy Project
According to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, currently a Fischer Family Fellow with the Belfer Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project, “Any presidential election is in part a referendum on the 3 a.m. question: Whom do you trust to answer and make a wise decision if the red phone rings in the middle of the night with a nuclear crisis? The remaining weeks of this presidential campaign will focus more on the foreign policy issues that will help Americans make this decision. And it should help concentrate our minds that this month marks the 50th anniversary of the most dangerous moment in modern American history, the Cuban missile crisis.”
August 6, 2012
Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center Launches Website Marking Cuban Missile Crisis 50th Anniversary
Press Release
Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs today launches a new website to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Designed to help policymakers, students, and interested citizens draw lessons from these critical events half a century ago, www.cubanmissilecrisis.org not only provides background on the crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in October 1962 but also offers tools to understand how it can inform contemporary policy.
July 15, 2012
Approaches to Strengthen China's Nuclear Security
Presentation
By Hui Zhang, Senior Research Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
Establishing modern, well-designed nuclear material protection, control, and accounting (MPC&A) systems to secure nuclear material in China is very important to prevent against nuclear terrorism. At the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC, Chinese President Hu Jintao made clearly commitments to strengthening nuclear security. This paper will assess China’s material protection, control, and accounting approaches, analyze existing regulations and administrative systems, and propose ways of strengthening them.
July/August 2012
"The Cuban Missile Crisis at 50"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Foreign Affairs
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
"Fifty years ago, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. Every president since John F. Kennedy has tried to learn from what happened back then," writes Graham Allison, Director of the Belfer Center and one of the world's foremost experts on the Cuban Missile Crisis. "Today, it can help U.S. policymakers understand what to do -- and what not to do -- about Iran, North Korea, China, and presidential decision-making in general."
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.
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.”
