Belfer Center Regions

Building a Durable Peace in Ukraine

Belfer Center — Jul 16, 2024

Jul 16, 2024

In June, Ukraine’s most powerful backers met at the G7 summit before attending Ukraine’s peace conference in Switzerland, which hosted representatives from nearly eighty countries. For one week, they met to discuss Volodymyr Zelensky’s ten-point peace plan, announced a plan to fund Ukraine using frozen Russian assets, and introduced a U.S.-Ukraine bilateral security agreement. As the United States and its allies are working to put Ukraine in the best position possible for eventual ceasefire negotiations, what should their top priority be?

Reducing Nuclear Dangers

Belfer Center — Jun 20, 2024

Jun 20, 2024

Matthew Bunn argues that governments need help from scientists and engineers both in understanding the dangers that nuclear weapons continue to pose and in finding paths to reduce them.

Morality Is the Enemy of Peace

Belfer Center — Jun 13, 2024

Jun 13, 2024

Stephen Walt argues that once governments use moral arguments to justify their positions in international disputes, cutting a deal becomes much harder, even when it would be in everyone's interest.

What the West Can Learn From Singapore

Belfer Center — Jun 5, 2024

Jun 5, 2024

When asked whether the U.S. government works, most Americans say no. According to recent polling by Ipsos, more than two-thirds of adults in the United States think the country is going in the wrong direction. Gallup reports that only 26 percent have confidence in major U.S. institutions, such as the presidency, the Supreme Court, and Congress. Nearly half of Americans aged 18 to 25 say that they believe either that democracy or dictatorship “makes no difference” or that “dictatorship could be good in certain circumstances.” As a recent Economist cover story put it: “After victory in the Cold War, the American model seemed unassailable. A generation on, Americans themselves are losing confidence in it.”

Biden's Foreign-Policy Problem Is Incompetence

Belfer Center — Jun 4, 2024

Jun 4, 2024

Stephen Walt argues that those who fetishize credibility typically assume all that is needed is sufficient resolve. This overlooks the other key ingredient— competence.

Old and New Lessons from the Ukraine War

Belfer Center — Jun 4, 2024

Jun 4, 2024

Joseph Nye Russia's war on Ukraine is still raging, and no one knows when or how it will end. Nonetheless, the past two years have borne out several predictions concerning what does and does not work in twenty-first-century conflicts involving major powers.

Not So Innocent: Clerics, Monarchs, and the Ethnoreligious Cleansing of Western Europe

Belfer Center — Jun 2, 2024

Jun 2, 2024

Ethnic cleansing is not only a modern phenomenon. The medieval Catholic Church saw non-Christians as a threat and facilitated the ethnoreligious cleansing of Muslim and Jewish communities across Western Europe. Three conditions made this possible: The rising power of the papacy as a supranational religious authority; its dehumanization of non-Christians; and competition among Catholic Western European monarchs that left them vulnerable to papal-clerical demands to eradicate non-Christians. These findings revise our understanding twentieth- and twenty-first-century ethnic cleansing in places like Cambodia, Iraq, Myanmar, the Soviet Union, and Syria.

Appeasement Is Underrated

Belfer Center — Apr 29, 2024

Apr 29, 2024

Stephen Walt argues that rejecting diplomacy by citing Neville Chamberlain's deal with the Nazis is a willfully ignorant use of history.

A Message from Ukraine: Do Not Provoke Putin—with Weakness

Belfer Center — Apr 29, 2024

Apr 29, 2024

Mariana Budjeryn writes that despite, or perhaps because, of this ever-present shadow of war, the 16th annual Kyiv Security Forum, which was held in March 2024, was a display of camaraderie and solidarity with Ukraine, with sincere dues paid to Ukraine's bravery, sacrifices, and resilience, as well as in recognition that Ukraine belongs in the transatlantic security architecture.

Kyrgyzstan in Crisis: A Geopolitical Juncture

Belfer Center — Apr 29, 2024

Apr 29, 2024

Kyrgyzstan is currently at a critical geopolitical juncture in which it is forced to
confront its longstanding ties with Russia against a backdrop of internal and external
pressures towards autocracy. Once celebrated as the ‘island of democracy’ in Central
Asia, the small nation faces significant challenges in light of internal authoritarian
tendencies and external pressure following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in
February 2022. This report, therefore, examines the role of Kyrgyzstan within the
global democracy versus autocracy debate that has intensified in the past two years
and assesses President Japarov’s neutrality with regards to Russia’s invasion and
Bishkek’s shifting allegiances.

This report relies on a qualitative methodology that builds on field research conducted
in Kyrgyzstan in August 2023. As such, this report incorporates interviews with
Kyrgyz civil society organizations and other stakeholders working on issues
including, but not limited to, democratization, corruption, human rights, media, and
the rule of law. The report presents an in-depth analysis of the Russian influence with
regards to the Kyrgyz political system, civil society, and strategic relationship with
Moscow, underpinned by the historical context of Kyrgyz-Russian relations.

Shaping Transatlantic Security: The EU’s Drive for a Stronger Defense Industry

Belfer Center — Apr 22, 2024

Apr 22, 2024

On March 05, 2024, the European Commission unveiled its first-ever European Defense Industry Strategy (EDIS). This announcement comes at an unprecedented moment in history. In Ukraine, the situation remains a dire tactical stalemate, while belligerent Russia seems more threatening than ever to the European bloc. In the US, despite the efforts of the Biden administration, aid to Ukraine stalled for months and remains a contentious issue in Congress. Across Europe, EU Member States are trying to fill the gap in aid, but are struggling to supply Ukraine with the defense systems it urgently needs. On February 10, at a rally in South Carolina, former President and presidential candidate Donald Trump cast doubt on whether he would defend or surrender to Russia any European country that would fail to achieve NATO’s 2%-of-GDP target for defense spending.

Russia's Invasion of Ukraine and Its Impact on the Global Nuclear Order

Belfer Center — Apr 17, 2024

Apr 17, 2024

Mariana Budjeryn presents "Russia's Invasion of Ukraine and Its Impact on the Global Nuclear Order" at the DOE/NNSA Administrator's Strategy Forum

Polls Show Record Low Number of Russians Willing to Permanently Move Abroad

Belfer Center — Apr 12, 2024

Apr 12, 2024

The share of Russians who would like to leave Russia for permanent residence in another country has reached a record low, according to the results of a national poll conducted by Russia’s Levada Center on March 21-27, 2024. Of the countries Russians were eager to relocate to, the U.S. topped the list (11%), followed by Germany (8%) and Italy and Turkey (6% each). China ranked 10-11 along with Canada.That seven out of the top 11 countries Russians would like to relocate to are members of the collective West, with 46% interested in moving to these countries, also shows the limits of the Kremlin’s efforts to instill anti-Western sentiments in the Russian public.

The 50th Anniversary of GPS: New Avenues for Cooperating with Europe's Galileo

Belfer Center — Apr 9, 2024

Apr 9, 2024

This paper delves into the evolution and future prospects of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), with a particular focus on the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS) and Europe's Galileo. As GPS celebrates its 50th anniversary, it is a timely moment to assess its historical trajectory, current status, and future directions, especially considering the emergence of new competitors like China's BeiDou. Based on interviews with two GNSS experts from the European Commission, this study aims to analyze the potential for cooperation between GPS and Galileo, exploring avenues for collaboration and mutual learning.

Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Says More…

Belfer Center — Apr 2, 2024

Apr 2, 2024

This week in Say More, Project Syndicate talks with Joseph S. Nye, Jr., an emeritus professor at Harvard Kennedy School, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense, and the author, most recently, of A Life in the American Century.

Nobody Actually Knows What Russia Does Next

Belfer Center — Apr 2, 2024

Apr 2, 2024

Stephen Walt argues that because no one knows what Putin might do, NATO's European members should increase their defense capabilities and correct any obvious vulnerabilities. At the same time, however, the United States and its NATO allies should acknowledge Russia's legitimate security concerns and consider what they can do to allay them.

Russia is Learning that Countries that live in Gas Houses Shouldn’t Throw Drones

Belfer Center — Mar 25, 2024

Mar 25, 2024

Bystander video feeds show scenes of fire and destruction, flames engulfing pipelines and smoke billowing from oil tank farms. In one clip, a twin-tailed aircraft flies slowly over a burning refinery. It loiters, banks, and then plunges precisely into the top of a tall, hydrocarbon filled distillation tower followed by explosions and more fire.

Kyiv is turning the tables on Russia by striking at its hydrocarbon lifeblood. Ukraine’s justified and effective homegrown response to Putin’s two-year campaign of attacks on the nation’s energy infrastructure shows Russia that what goes around comes around.

A “Nuclear Umbrella” for Ukraine? Precedents and Possibilities for Postwar European Security

Belfer Center — Mar 15, 2024

Mar 15, 2024

Europe after the Russo-Ukrainian War must develop a new security structure to defend against any Russian aggression. The safest option is a non-offensive, confidence-building defense. This option includes proposals such as the “spider in the web” strategy and the “porcupine” strategy to provide for European security in a region threatened by Russian expansion—without relying on the threat of nuclear war.

We All Fall Down: The Dismantling of the Warsaw Pact and the End of the Cold War in Eastern Europe

Belfer Center — Mar 14, 2024

Mar 14, 2024

The non-Soviet members of the Warsaw Pact contributed to the end of the Cold War along with the superpowers. These Eastern European states recognized that their relationship with the Soviet Union would impede their success in the post–Cold War world, so they ended the Pact.

It's Not Too Late for Restrained U.S. Foreign Policy

Belfer Center — Mar 14, 2024

Mar 14, 2024

Stephen Walt writes that those who favor foreign policy restraint believe the United States should trade and invest in other countries, encourage other states to do the same, and be open to managed immigration instead of building walls in a fit of xenophobia.