Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - International Security And Defense

Belfer Center Perspectives On Iran

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:49:52 -0500

As debate over Iran's nuclear program intensifies, Belfer Center experts on Iran have been interviewed and quoted in numerous media reports and have written opinion pieces on the issues involved. Here are recent published perspectives.

Cyber Security

Ryan Ellis — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:21:02 -0500

Dr. Ellis raises an interesting question: Does the pursuit of offensive cyber capabilities undermine domestic security? The conversation highlights a growing area of concern and ongoing debate.

David Hamburg on Giving Peace a Chance

James F. Smith — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:41:18 -0500

May 16, 2013

When Dr. David A. Hamburg led the Carnegie Corporation of New York in the 1980s and ‘90s, he drew on his roots as a physician to foster projects and research that advanced a simply stated goal: “the prevention of rotten outcomes.”

Now in his late 80s, Hamburg is still putting his medical instincts to work. He is discovering new ways to use early-prevention methods to avoid deadly conflict and enable healthy human development.

Hamburg spoke at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs on May 3 about his forthcoming book, Give Peace a Chance. His son and co-author, filmmaker Eric Hamburg, joined him at the event, along with two Harvard friends, Law School Dean Martha Minow and Belfer Center Director Graham Allison.

Critics Quick to Attack Obama Administration, but its Inquiry into AP Was Justified

Juliette Kayyem — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:03:27 -0500

"...[T]he leak wasn't just an inside-the-Beltway jab at political enemies, and the story that resulted wasn't about infighting in the national security staff. The information cut to the heart of how America fights its enemies and the resources it uses to do so. An agent of ours had infiltrated a terrorist cell. He is no longer in the inner circle. The leaker may be to blame. And the investigation that has everyone up in arms was completely justified."

Project on Managing the Atom Internship at the Harvard Kennedy School

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:21:07 -0500

The Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government seeks interns to serve as Student Associates for the summer of 2013. These internships provide opportunities for undergraduate or graduate students to meet experts in nuclear policy, attend lectures and seminars, and assist MTA project faculty, staff, and fellows with their research. MTA will provide a modest hourly wage or academic credit for the internship.

Change the Conversation, Change the Venue and Change Our Future

Melissa Hathaway — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:55:28 -0500

"The G20 has an opportunity to articulate a vision for shaping the Internet economy for the next five to 10 years. The power of the leadership of this body, combined with its ability to assemble and speak to a simple, positive narrative for cybersecurity anchored in our collective economic well-being (and GDP growth), could be a watershed event. The GDP erosion that all nations are suffering places cybersecurity within the legitimate processes and 'architecture' of international economic governance. By changing the conversation to being about the economy and growth, this approach would enable the G20 to de-escalate the militarization and balkanization of the Internet."

Belfer Center Newsletter Summer 2013

Sharon Wilke — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:20:44 -0500

The Summer 2013 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming activities, research, and analysis by members of the Center community on critical global issues. This edition highlights the Belfer Center’s expanding work on complex cybersecurity issues and Middle East challenges, offers reflections on the role of the U.S. in Iraq, and spotlights work being done by the Center and its affiliates on environment and energy issues.

Confronting Complex Cybersecurity Challenges

James F. Smith — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:19:07 -0500

For the past four years, faculty and fellows from Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have partnered in a project called “Explorations in Cyber International Relations.” The ECIR project’s brief is “to explore alternative cyber developments, assess challenges and threats, and identify possibilities and opportunities in cyberspace for security and well-being.”

North Korea: What’s Next for the Region?

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:18:10 -0500

As threats from North Korea intensified this spring, Korean Peninsula experts from the Belfer Center provided insight and analysis.

From the Director

Graham Allison — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:17:48 -0500

"The Boston Marathon is at the heart of a day rich in meaning for the Boston community...The marathon terror attack of April 15 cut into our community at its most vulnerable. That made the suffering of the victims even more intolerable for all Americans...As the dramatic events unfolded in Boston, I was proud not only of the resilient response of our city, but also of the support the Belfer Center community was able to offer."

International Council Members Debate Critical Issues

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:16:43 -0500

The Belfer Center launched its annual International Council meeting on April 9 with animated discussions of, among others, U.S. energy politics, the links between economic policy and national security, cybersecurity, and the rise of China. Participants included members of the Center's International Council and Board of Directors as well as faculty and senior fellows.

Afghanistan’s Future Holds Promise, Danger, Experts Agree

James F. Smith — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:15:55 -0500

"Even as they acknowledged that potential dangers loom in Afghanistan over the next two years, experts at a Harvard conference pointed to some encouraging signs. One example: the number of schoolchildren has grown from 800,000 in 2001 to nearly nine million today....Speakers from Afghanistan and the West recognized that violence persists and problems such as endemic corruption still plague the country....But they took solace from the work of Afghans themselves in building a credible national military force that has increasingly taken on the brunt of combat duties"

Q&A with Juliette Kayyem

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:12:59 -0500

Juliette Kayyem is a Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School who served as Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the first Obama administration and headed homeland security efforts for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Currently a columnist for the Boston Globe and analyst for CNN, Kayyem provided extensive analysis of the situation following the Boston Marathon bombings. We asked for her views on Boston’s response to the attack.

Nussaibah Younis: Foreign Policies of Weak States Matter

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:10:43 -0500

The invasion of Iraq prompted a deluge of work written on the country from a U.S. perspective, but Nussaibah Younis, a fellow with the Belfer Center's International Security Program, wants people to start considering Iraq as an actor in its own right. While at the Center, Younis is working on a project that seeks to understand internal Iraqi foreign policymaking dynamics since 2003.

Marisa Porges’ Journey from Naval Flight Officer to Counterterror Expert

Wesley Nord — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:09:02 -0500

"Belfer Center Fellow Marisa Porges’ career has already spanned the worlds of academia and policymaking, the government and the military. As an undergraduate at Harvard, Porges earned honors with a degree in geophysics and, during senior year, commanded her Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps unit. After graduation, she commissioned as a naval flight officer in the U.S. Navy and managed the weapons systems aboard EA-6B Prowlers, a carrier-based electronic warfare jet.... [now] as a doctoral candidate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and a research fellow with the Belfer Center’s International Security Program, she now combines scholarship and practice."

Yvonne Yew Offers Insight into Crucial Asian Security Issues

Ramiro Gonzalez Lorca — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:08:12 -0500

"Researching Asian security issues has never been more topical,” Yvonne Yew said in discussing her work at the Belfer Center. Despite Asia’s economic growth, she said, “simmering tensions, territorial disputes, nuclear proliferation concerns, and military skirmishes serve to potentially undermine the region’s peace and prosperity. As a former Singaporean diplomat and representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yew is in a unique position to view security issues spurred by the momentous and ongoing rise of Asia."

Noora Lori Looks at Changing Nature of Immigration

Dominic Contreras — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:07:06 -0500

The study of citizenship, what it means and what it entails, has always been a topic of considerable debate in international relations and political science. Discussions of citizenship usually occur from the perspective of those who are included within a particular community, yet accelerated changes in global migration flows over the past 60 years have shifted the discussion into new waters. Noora Lori is among those attempting to understand this changing relationship between the state, the citizen, and the migrant.

Views on Iraq: 10 Years Later

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:06:33 -0500

In March 2003 the United States invaded Iraq. In March 2013, on the 10-year anniversary of the war’s commencement, a number of Belfer Center faculty and affiliates reflected on the war and its legacy. Below is a sampling of those viewpoints.

Neustadt Award Honors Senators Nunn and Lugar for Nuclear Safety

Sharon Wilke — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:05:00 -0500

"Former Senator Sam Nunn, founder and CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative... and former Senator Richard Lugar were awarded the prestigious 2013 Richard E. Neustadt Award at Harvard Kennedy School on May 2... Dean David Ellwood noted that the award is bestowed annually to honor one or more individuals “for creating powerful solutions to public problems, drawing on research and intellectual ideas as appropriate.”

Hot Off the Presses

Susan M. Lynch — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:03:27 -0500

A survey of recent books by Belfer Center affiliates.

Elbe Group Facilitates U.S.-Russia Communication, Security

Kevin Ryan — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:02:01 -0500

As U.S. and Soviet forces converged in Germany in the final days of WWII, both armies met at the River Elbe near Torgau. That meeting of comrades, united in the face of common threats, is the inspiration for the Belfer Center’s “Elbe Group,” whose purpose is to maintain an open and continuous channel of communication on sensitive issues of U.S.-Russian relations. In late March, the Elbe Group met in Jerusalem for its eighth meeting since its founding in 2010.

International Security Journal Highlights

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:01:28 -0500

International Security is America’s leading journal of security affairs. It provides sophisticated analyses of contemporary security issues and discusses their conceptual and historical foundations. The journal is edited at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and published quarterly by the MIT Press.

Pentagon's Sexual Assault Conundrum

Juliette Kayyem — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:59:14 -0500

"...[T]he only real solution will come with the complete integration of women into an armed services that has, for too long, treated them as second-class citizens. Sexual misconduct is a symptom, not a cause, of an institutional culture built around rules prohibiting women from equal status."

Nebulous NATO: A Quest for Relevance

Timothy Sandole — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:38:22 -0500

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is considered the most successful military alliance in history, and yet, its future is clouded in uncertainty. With the end of the Cold War, followed by the breakup of the Soviet Union, NATO has suffered from a structural problem that has become more acute over time—the absence of a clearly defined existential threat to Europe. This makes for a dubious raison d’être. If NATO’s future was ambiguous immediately following the Cold War, it is disquieting to consider its role in an environment of draconian defense cuts, fiscal woes in the United States, a Europe-wide financial crisis, and a U.S. military shift toward the Pacific.

North Korea's Nuclear Weapons: Future Strategy and Doctrine

Terence Roehrig — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:46:55 -0500

A nuclear North Korea makes it crucial that all countries in Northeast Asia work hard at maintaining a stable security environment that avoids the dangers of a crisis while encouraging North Korea to adopt a nuclear strategy that retains its "no first use" pledge, a strong command and control system, and a stable nuclear weapons posture. Given its relationship with North Korea, China is best positioned to encourage DPRK leaders in these directions.

Options for Action in Syria

Chuck Freilich — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:42:51 -0500

"...[E]ven the limited use of chemical weapons violates a fundamental international norm and an American failure to respond would create another North Korea–like precedent that would be a source of deep encouragement for the Assads of the world: WMD buys even a heinous regime immunity from international retaliation. Iran is no doubt watching in the wings, deriving its own conclusions regarding what the U.S. defines as unacceptable behavior."

Born Yesterday

Charles G. Cogan — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:53:59 -0500

"...[T]here are many downsides to what has happened in Afghanistan. In my view, we should have stopped hostilities in Afghanistan when bin Laden and his al-Qaeda followers escaped into Pakistan in late 2001. But it is now more than 11 years later and way past time to get out."

Killing without a Script

Juliette Kayyem — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:39:07 -0500

"No society as open as ours can promise perfect security. Thus, it makes sense that a strategy that resigns itself to some form of terrorism in our modern age would, naturally, concentrate on making sure that those who do harm us are stupid, disorganized, rushed, and fickle. Their violence is smaller scale and therefore more manageable, made even more so by the efforts of well-trained first responders."

Ashton Carter at JFK Jr. Forum: Turning a Strategic Corner

Ashton B. Carter — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:38:00 -0500

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter joined moderator Graham Allison, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, on April 23, 2013, at a John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum for a discussion on the strategic and budgetary transitions currently underway in the Department of Defense. Topics addressed included the importance of protecting investments in the future of U.S. national security and the current rebalance to the Pacific. Questions from the audience addressed subjects ranging from potential furloughs due to budget cuts to the thirtieth anniversary of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.

View the entire JFK Jr. event here on the Institute of Politics website.

Attached is the transcript of Carter's remarks, as prepared for delivery.

Out on a Presidential Limb

Charles G. Cogan — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:56:36 -0500

"...[I]n the event of a worst-case scenario in which negotiations completely fail, Barack Obama has committed himself to an unprovoked military attack on Iran, which would have a disastrous effect on world public opinion and lead to unpredictable human and material damage."