UNITED NATIONS
August 2012
The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Anchoring Stability in Asia
Report
By Richard Armitage and Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
The following report presents a consensus view of the members of a bipartisan study group on the U.S.-Japan alliance. The report specifically addresses energy, economics and global trade, relations with neighbors, and security-related issues. Within these areas, the study group offers policy recommendations for Japan and the United States, which span near- and long-term time frames. These recommendations are intended to bolster the alliance as a force for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.
AP Photo
August 20, 2012
"Why West Should Curb Hostility To Non-Aligned Summit in Tehran"
Op-Ed, Al-Monitor
By Abbas Maleki, Associate, International Security Program and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
"...[T]he various implications of the NAM summit and Iran's NAM presidency — for regional stability, conflict mediation and a greater Iranian role as a responsible international actor, among others — need to be taken into consideration in the West, as part and parcel of a more prudent and nuanced Western approach toward Iran, instead of one that is dependent on coercive diplomacy."
AP Photo
August 16, 2012
"US Would Own the War in Syria"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Ideological justifications for intervention sound morally assuring. But because the world is not united in opposition to Assad, because France and most of Europe are not now calling for intervention, because the Arabs are not clamoring for US action, because Russia and China and Iran are sophisticated opponents, because the United Nations has not been able to gain traction, the United States would have to stand alone at the forefront."
July 2012
"International Paretianism: A Defense"
Discussion Paper
By Eric A. Posner and David Weisbach
A treaty satisfies what we call International Paretianism if it advances the interests of all states that join it, so that no state is made worse off. The principle might seem obvious, but it rules out nearly all the major proposals for a climate treaty, including proposals advanced by academics and by government officials. We defend International Paretianism, and for that reason urge commentators in the debate over climate justice to abandon efforts to right past wrongs, redistribute wealth, and achieve other abstract ideals through a climate treaty
AP Photo
Spring 2012
"Agenda for Peace or Budget for War? Evaluating the Economic Impact of International Intervention in Somalia"
Journal Article, International Journal, issue 2, volume 67
By Aisha Ahmad, Former Research Fellow, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs/International Security Program, 2011–2012
This article shows how international humanitarian aid, particularly food aid, has played an instrumental role in perpetuating chronic civil war and state collapse in Somalia from 1992–2012. During the 1992 famine, food aid created lucrative opportunities for criminal elements of the Somali business community, who partnered with local warlords to create an enduring system of corruption and aid dependence. International aid financed this elite pact between business and warlords, which subsequently undermined domestic processes of order-making and reduced the bargaining power of local communities in the peace-building process.
AP Photo
August 9, 2012
"Ebola Outbreak is Quelled — This Time"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Juliette Kayyem, Lecturer in Public Policy
"Global public health efforts tend to be be focused on reproductive and family issues. But health programs are very much a part of our security — hard security — apparatus. Even if the Ebola virus never makes it to American shores, a large outbreak in one or two countries in Africa would eventually have ripple effects leading to destabilization of governments, concerns about the global economy, refugee crises, and the end of immigration access to the United States for those in the impacted countries."
AP Photo
July 24, 2012
"'Chess Is the Way We Establish Mastery Over the West'"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Clearly, by the nature of their regimes, neither the Russians nor the Chinese would be expected to countenance the idea of a popular uprising to overthrow a dictatorship. Together China and Russia have formed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which can be described as a grouping of counter-revolutionary regimes, the leading members of which are bent on checkmating the West where possible. Iran, another like-minded autocratic power, is an observer member of the Organization."
AP Photo
July 2012
"The Durban Platform Negotiations: Goals and Options"
Policy Brief
In December 2011, parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, which launched a new round of negotiations aimed at developing "a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force" for the post-2020 period. The Durban Platform negotiations got underway this year and are scheduled to conclude in 2015. This Viewpoint analyzes the elements of the Durban Platform and the possible role that a new instrument might play.
AP Photo
June 21, 2012
"The Warfare State: Considering a Military Attack in a Fourth Muslim Country"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Charles G. Cogan, Associate, International Security Program
"Whether or not the U.S. joined in an Israeli bombing of Iran, it would be blamed for it, and it would be seen throughout the world as America's fourth military intervention in a Muslim country."
June 2012
Unleashing the Nuclear Watchdog: Strengthening and Reform of the IAEA
Report
By Trevor Findlay, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
This report marks the culmination of a two-year research project that examined all aspects of the mandate and operations of the International Atomic Energy Agency, from major programs on safeguards, safety, security, and the peaceful uses of nuclear energy to governance, management, and finance.
