WEAK/FAILED STATES
AP Photo
March 30, 2009
"The Real Afghan Issue Is Pakistan"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School and John M. Deutch, International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Mr. Obama took a giant step beyond the Bush administration's "Afghanistan policy" when he named the issue "AfPak" -- Afghanistan, Pakistan and their shared, Pashtun-populated border. But this is inverted. We suggest renaming the policy "PakAf," to emphasize that, from the perspective of U.S. interests and regional stability, the heart of the problem lies in Pakistan.
istock Photo
March 23, 2009
"How to Keep the Bomb From Terrorists"
Op-Ed, Newsweek
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
The only thing that can keep nuclear bombs out of the hands of terrorists is a brand-new science of nuclear forensics.
July 2, 2007
Fast Action Needed to Avert Nuclear Terror Strike on U.S.
Op-Ed, Baltimore Sun
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Before 9/11, most Americans found the idea that international terrorists could mount an attack on their homeland and kill thousands of innocent citizens not merely unlikely but inconceivable. After nearly six years without a second attack on U.S. soil, some skeptics suggest that 9/11 was a 100-year flood. The view that terrorists are preparing even more deadly assaults seems as far-fetched to them as the possibility of terrorists crashing passenger jets into the World Trade Center did before that fateful Tuesday morning in 2001. And yet the danger of a nuclear attack by terrorists is not only very real but disturbingly likely.
May 20, 2007
Disarming North Korea
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
THE FAILURE of North Korea to meet the deadline for closing its Yongbyon nuclear reactor and providing a list of all nuclear materials provides a preview of what is to come on the long road between Pyongyang's pledge to denuclearize and the actual elimination of all nuclear weapons and materials from North Korea.
October 27, 2006
Deterring Kim Jong-Il
Op-Ed, Washington Post
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
In an interview aired last week, George Stephanopoulos put the question to President Bush: What would he do if "North Korea sold nukes to Iran or al-Qaeda?" Bush replied, "They'd be held to account."
October 26, 2006
Cardinal Challenge: The World Must Take Seriously North Korea's Nuclear Provocation
Op-Ed, Richmond Times-Dispatch
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
As Henry Kissinger has noted, a cardinal challenge for statesmen is to recognize "a change in the international environment so likely to undermine national security that it must be resisted no matter what form the threat takes or how ostensibly legitimate it appears." North Korea's acquisition of nuclear weapons constitutes just such a change. American, Chinese, and other international leaders clearly failed to prevent this transformation. As a result, we now live in a much more dangerous world.
August 11, 2006
Assessing our Adversaries
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
As the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks become a more distant memory, many Americans comfort themselves with the thought that 9/11 was a freak accident or a 100-year flood.
July 23, 2006
Hold North Korea Accountable for Its Nuclear Arms
Op-Ed, Baltimore Sun
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Could North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, sell Osama bin Laden a nuclear weapon or the fissile material from which terrorists could make a nuclear bomb?
July 16, 2006
Misplaced `misunderestimation'
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. Bush has complained that opponents tend to "misunderestimate" him. Could he be misunderestimating his North Korean opponent, Kim Jong Il?
August 9, 2004
Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe
Book
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Graham Allison, founding dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a former top official at the Pentagon, and one of America’s leading scholars of nuclear strategy and national security, presents the evidence and argument that led him to two provocative conclusions: a nuclear terrorist attack on an American city is inevitable on our current course and speed, but preventable if we act now.
