Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Balkans

The Virtues and Vices of Fixed Territorial Ownership

Boaz Atzili — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Today, territorial ownership of states is essentially fixed, in marked contrast to earlier periods in history. This change has affected states in two very different ways. In regions in which most states are socio-politically strong, fixed territorial ownership is a blessing. It enhances peace, stability, and cooperation between states. In regions in which most states are socio-politically weak, however, fixed territorial ownership is largely a curse. It perpetuates and exacerbates states' weakness, and contributes to internal conflicts that often spill overacross international borders.

America and Global Public Goods

Joseph S. Nye — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500

"By using its good offices to mediate conflicts in places like Northern Ireland, Morocco, and the Aegean Sea, the US has helped in shaping international order in ways that are beneficial to other nations."

An Identity of Opinion: Historians and July 1914

Samuel R. Williamson and Ernest R. May — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500

"Despite all our accumulated information about 1914, we are still very far from being clear as to what men in power understood to be happening, why they thought it mattered, or how they assessed their action choices."

Military Interventions and the 'Lessons of Iraq'

Stephen Watts — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500

"The disastrous invasion of Iraq has shed a stark light on the
limitations of military interventions. Much of the ensuing
skepticism is quite healthy. But there is a risk that 'the lessons
of Iraq' will be learnt to the exclusion of lessons that can be
drawn from the more than two dozen other interventions of the
post-Cold War era...."

Peace through Dialogue

J. Martin Ramirez — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600

The paper is dedicated to look at some major steps for achieving peace, through a better dialogue among people of other cultures andcivilizations, such as no speaking about past misdeeds, respect for others, tolerance of differences, a better knowledge and understanding of them, and attitudes toward real reconciliation.

Understanding Victory and Defeat in Contemporary War

Jan Angstrom and Isabelle Duyvesteyn — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Bringing together leading contributors in the field, this volume analyses how victory and defeat in modern war can be understood and explained.

How to Lose a War on Terror: A Comparative Analysis of a Counterinsurgency Success and Failure

Ivan Arreguin-Toft — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600

"If it is true that every strategy has an ideal counterstrategy, then understanding how to counter terrorism demands some understanding of terrorism as a strategy."

Narrative Boundaries and the Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict and Conciliation

Tammy A. Smith — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Fiercely competing identity narratives provide the foundation for what often appear to be intractable ethnic conflicts.

Gendered Realities of the Immunity Principle: Why Gender Analysis Needs Feminism

Laura E. Sjoberg — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0600

The discipline of international relations has had different reactions to the increased salience of gender advocacy in international politics; some have reacted by asking feminist questions about IR, while others have encouraged the study of gender as a variable disengaged from feminist advocacy. This article takes up this debate simultaneously with current debate on gender and the noncombatant immunity principle.

Ashton Carter appointed to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s International Security Advisory Board

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0600

November 6, 2006

At a November 6, 2006 swearing-in at the State Department, Preventive Defense Project Co-Director and Kennedy School of Government professor Ashton B. Carter became a member of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s International Security Advisory Board (ISAB) which is charged with providing advice on a wide range of issues affecting national security.

The Inadvertent Effects of Democracy on Terrorist Group Emergence

Erica Chenoweth — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Why are terrorist groups prevalent in democracies?

Gambling on Humanitarian Intervention: Moral Hazard, Rebellion and Civil War

Timothy Crawford and Alan Kuperman — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500

October 4, 2006

Third-Party Intervention and Escalation in Kosovo: Does Moral Hazard Explain It?

Arman Grigorian — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500

October 4, 2006

The Fog of Peace and War Planning: Military and Strategic Planning under Uncertainty

Talbot C. Imlay and Monica Duffy Toft — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500

This volume sets out to examine and analyse how governments and military organizations planned for an uncertain and potentially threatening future during four different peacetime periods spanning from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the aftermath of the Second World War.

Strategic and Military Planning under the Fog of Peace

Monica Duffy Toft and Talbot C. Imlay — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500

September 6, 2006

"...in their scope and diversity, the cases provide an excellent overview of the challenges confronting military planners over the last two hundred years."

Conclusion: Seven Lessons Learned from the Fog of Peace

Talbot C. Imlay and Monica Duffy Toft — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500

"...the fog of peace can never be entirely pierced. Flexibility and constant cultivation of the ability to question received wisdom and to reconsider assumptions are the best security against catastrophic failure in a future war, regardless of whether that war resembles a more traditional interstate war or the current war on terror."

Why Social Capital Subverts Institution Building in Risky Settings

Tammy A. Smith — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500

This article considers the problem of fostering confidence in institutions in a post-war context.

Meeting the Development Challenge in the 21st Century: American and Chinese Perpectives on Foreign Aid

Michael A. Glosny — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0500

A report on Chinese and American foreign aid policies, based on Mr. Glosny's research and a National Committee and CICIR conference held in December 2005.

Turkey's Energy Policies in a Tight Global Energy Market

Brenda Shaffer — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Despite this extensive activity in the energy sphere, it seems, however, that Ankara's energy policy has been undertaken without a strategic plan and with little integration of energy issues into Turkey's overall foreign and security policies.

Evolution or Revolution?

Michael Horowitz and Stephen P. Rosen — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0500

This essay appeared in a roundtable review and discussion of Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle by Stephen Biddle (Princeton University Press, 2004).

For Our Benefit, for Our Values

Thomas J. Wright — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0600

Thomas Wright argues that only America can give the world the leadership it needs.

Book Review: Justice in the Balkans: Prosecuting War Crimes in the Hague Tribunal by John Hagan

Fotini Christia — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0500

August 31, 2004

Bosnia: The Limits of Neocolonial Rule

Roberto Belloni — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 00:00:00 -0500

August 5, 2004

The Ethnopolitical Encyclopaedia of Europe

Fri, 02 Jul 2004 00:00:00 -0500

July 2, 2004

Peacebuilding and Consociational Electoral Engineering in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Roberto Belloni — Wed, 30 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0500

Crisis Management in the Eastern Mediterranean: Implications for Policymakers

Neophytos Loizides — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0600

Project Vinca: Lessons for Securing Civil Nuclear Material Stockpiles

Tue, 30 Sep 2003 00:00:00 -0500

Dubious Democracy by Fiat

Roberto Belloni — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0500

August 20, 2003

The [F]utility of Barbarism: Assessing the Impact of the Systematic Harm of Noncombatants in War

Ivan Arreguin-Toft — Fri, 01 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0500

Under what conditions does barbarism — a state or non-state actor’s deliberate and systematic injury of non-combatants during a conflict — help or hinder its military and political objectives?

Comrades No More: The Seeds of Change in Eastern Europe

Renee de Nevers — Mon, 30 Jun 2003 00:00:00 -0500

June 30, 2003

In 1989, Soviet control over Eastern Europe ended when the communist regimes of the Warsaw Pact collapsed. These momentous and largely bloodless events set the stage for the end of the Cold War and ushered in a new era in international politics. Why did communism collapse relatively peacefully in Eastern Europe? Why did these changes occur in 1989, after more than four decades of communist rule? Why did this upheaval happen almost simultaneously in most of the Warsaw Pact?