Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Latin America

Q&A with Dara Kay Cohen

Dara Kay Cohen — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:40:56 -0500

Dara Kay Cohen is an assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a core faculty member of the International Security Program at the Belfer Center. Her current research examines variations in the use of sexual violence during recent conflicts and draws from fieldwork in Sierra Leone, East Timor, and El Salvador, where she interviewed more than 200 ex-combatants and noncombatants. Here, she answers questions related to her research on the causes of wartime rape . She recently co-authored a policy report for the United States Institute of Peace titled “Wartime Sexual Violence: Misconceptions, Implications, and Ways Forward.”

Visiting Fellows Ponder What Works and What Fails

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:36:12 -0500

In this article, new Belfer Center visting fellows tackle some of the most pressing current issues in international relations including U.S.-Brazilian relations, the European financial crisis, the legality of drone strikes and what a post-Assad Syria will look like.

Chavez Death Creates Risk, Opportunity

Juliette Kayyem — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:24:47 -0600

"By eliminating the automatic refugee status granted to Cubans if they somehow reach US soil, we would stop tempting them to take to the seas in rickety boats and inner tubes on which many lose their lives. We would also put the whole world on equal footing, determining which refugees are allowed to stay not by whether we like (or don't like) their country's leadership, but whether they have valid reasons to stay, including a fear of political reprisals. It is time we end a Cuba policy that has sowed ill will among our southern neighbors and non-Cuban immigrant populations in the United States."

'Energy Independence' Alone Won't Boost U.S. Power

Meghan L. O'Sullivan — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:22:00 -0600

“We are finally poised to control our own energy future,” said President Barack Obama in his State of the Union message, noting the drastic increase in American energy production from unconventional oil and gas resources.

Controlling our energy future means more than just producing a greater amount of our own energy. It also means harnessing this energy renaissance to meet our global geopolitical needs. We’ve begun to reap the many economic benefits this boom brings—such as easing the trade deficit and lowering carbon emissions. But we have only started to appreciate how this energy renaissance affects our larger strategic environment. And, not surprisingly, many readers of the tea leaves have confused reality with desire, by hoping more energy at home will mean keeping out of the volatile politics and economics of the Middle East.

The Year in Numbers

Juliette Kayyem — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 09:05:09 -0600

"The never-ending negotiations about the pending fiscal cliff sometimes amount to nothing more than a dizzying array of numbers. Who can count that high? The negotiations also make us think that the only stastistics that mattered in 2012, or will matter in 2013, involve dollar signs. A year in pictures may be compelling and beautiful, but the year in numbers gives a strong hint of what to anticipate in the year ahead."

Inside the Situation Room: A National Security Crisis Simulation

Sharon Wilke — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:49:48 -0500

Harvard Kennedy School students convened at the Kennedy School on October 27 to simulate a meeting of the National Security Council to resolve a modern-day crisis. The simulation, developed entirely by a team of HKS students, coordinated by HKS student Leon Ratz, was co-sponsored by the Belfer Center and the Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership. The event was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Picasso, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Malcolm Wiener

Sharon Wilke — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:45:12 -0500

As visitors step through the doors of the Kennedy Memorial Library for events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, they will find on display Picasso's 1963 Rape of the Sabine Women - on loan from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. The connection between Picasso's painting and what is widely accepted as the most dangerous moment in human history was brought to light for many by Malcolm Wiener, a member of the Belfer Center’s International Council and the person for whom Harvard Kennedy School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy was named.

Panama's Magic Number

Juliette Kayyem — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:12:43 -0500

"The United States is the only modern society that does not have a federal agency responsible for port strategy. Maritime planning is left to the states. The White House can merely promise expedited engineering review, as it did last month, of the port changes in New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, all trying to get to that depth of 50 feet, fast."

Panama Canal's Future Depends on Accommodating Wider Loads

Juliette Kayyem — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:57:34 -0500

"To remain competitive in a global transportation industry where the vast majority of all goods are moved on waterways, the canal had to change. Ships that are too large for the canal take their goods elsewhere: to Suez, or the Straits of Malacca (between Malaysia and Indonesia), or the ports of Los Angeles where cargo is routed on the 'land bridge' of railways and highways from West to East Coast. Or the large ships are unloaded at the base of the Panama Canal onto smaller vessels, a process that occurs here every Friday–Sunday."

Measuring the Impacts of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: Placing the Global 'Success' of TRCs in Local Perspective

Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch, Megan Mackenzie and Mohamed Sesay — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:42:01 -0500

"Truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) have emerged as an international norm and are assumed to be an essential element of national reconciliation, democratization, and post-conflict development. Despite the increase in the number of TRCs being initiated around the globe and the international consensus regarding their positive effects, there is little understanding of the longterm effects and consequences of TRCs. Specifically, currently there are no established methods or mechanisms for measuring the impacts of TRCs; furthermore, the few examples of efforts to measure these impacts have serious limitations. This article explores both the rise in TRCs as an international norm and the contradictions and inadequacies in existing efforts to measure the impacts and successes of commissions."

El Autoritarismo Económico en Argentina

Pierpaolo Barbieri — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:17:58 -0500

El aislamiento no es sostenible. La libertad es más eficiente —y justa— que el estatalismo.

A Lesson in Crony Capitalism

Pierpaolo Barbieri — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:10:46 -0500

"As the U.S. gears up for an important presidential election, Argentina is a sad reminder of how crony capitalism is the enemy of genuine development."

Mexican Oil Reforms Are Vital on Both Sides of the Border

Meghan L. O'Sullivan — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:25:30 -0500

In recent days a coalition of Mexican advocacy groups has been protesting in front of Televisa, the country’s largest TV network, to contest the legitimacy of President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto’s July 1 victory.

"Post-Durban Climate Policy Architecture Based on Linkage of Cap-and-Trade Systems"

Robert N. Stavins and Matthew Ranson — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:40:19 -0500

The outcome of the December 2011 United Nations climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, provides an important new opportunity to move toward an international climate policy architecture that is capable of delivering broad international participation and significant global CO2 emissions reductions at reasonable cost. This paper addresses an important component of potential climate policy architecture for the post-Durban era: links among independent tradable permit systems for greenhouse gases.

The Cuban Missile Crisis at 50

Graham Allison — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:05:52 -0500

"Fifty years ago, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. Every president since John F. Kennedy has tried to learn from what happened back then," writes Graham Allison, Director of the Belfer Center and one of the world's foremost experts on the Cuban Missile Crisis. "Today, it can help U.S. policymakers understand what to do -- and what not to do -- about Iran, North Korea, China, and presidential decision-making in general."

At 50, the Cuban Missile Crisis as Guide

Graham Allison — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 08:52:15 -0500

Fifty years ago, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. During the standoff, President John F. Kennedy thought the chance of escalation to war was “between 1 in 3 and even,” and what we have learned in later decades has done nothing to lengthen those odds. Such a conflict might have led to the deaths of 100 million Americans and over 100 million Russians.

Executive Program Fosters Regional Innovation

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:12:35 -0500

In the modern global economy, nations do not compete; it is specialized regions that compete, according to Calestous Juma, faculty chair of the Innovation for Economic Development executive program. To help countries strengthen their regional innovation systems, the Belfer Center will join Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education in sponsoring a high level executive program beginning May 28.

Exporting America's Future

Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:32:45 -0500

"...[y]ou can't do R&D offshore from a distance. The "look-see-do" of innovation depends on close ties to the manufacturing process. Proximity to manufacturing is the key to other higher-value activities — design, engineering and R&D. And with that, jobs."

Incentives and Stability of International Climate Coalitions: An Integrated Assessment

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:36:43 -0500

"A successful international climate policy framework will have to meet two conditions, build a coalition of countries that is potentially effective and give each member country sufficient incentives to join and remain in this coalition. Such coalition should be capable of delivering ambitious emission reduction even if some countries do not take mitigation action. In addition, it should meet the target without exceedingly high mitigation costs and deliver a net benefit to member countries as a whole. The novel contribution of this paper is mostly methodological, but it also adds a better qualification of well-known results that are policy relevant."

Feeding the Next Generation: Science, Business, and Public Policy

Calestous Juma, Josh Drake and L. Val Giddings — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:10:58 -0600

Today, three of ten people on the planet rely on others to grow their food and 900 million remain chronically food insecure. By 2050 the global demand for agricultural production is expected to double. Half of the global population will live in cities and will need to be fed through market channels. Meeting these demands will require significant increases in agricultural productivity. Modern, science-driven farming including genetically modified crops represents the best chance of generating the increases in agricultural productivity necessary to feed our future. This paper's overall conclusion is that genetically modified crops can and should play a critical role in agricultural productivity. It is offers a roadmap for those interested in objectively evaluating both the risk and benefits of biotechnology in agriculture.

Yvonne Yew Seeks Better Understanding of the Non-Aligned Movement in Nuclear Global Order

Joseph Leahy — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:09:54 -0600

Since the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) emerged 50 years ago to counter the dominant power blocs of the Northern Hemisphere, a new global order has taken shape. In her June 2011 discussion paper, “Diplomacy and Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Navigating the Non-Aligned Movement,” Belfer Center fellow Yvonne Yew argues that developing countries now stand at a pivotal moment for nuclear engagement.

Seeding Diplomacy

Calestous Juma — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:40:07 -0500

"The rising concern over global food price volatility has put agriculture at the centre of international cooperation. But unlike the 1950s, when food aid became a major tool in international food policy, modern interactions among states are being redefined by globalisation and the associated knowledge flows. The interactions are part of a field that can be loosely referred to as agricultural diplomacy."

Sustainable Cooperation in Global Climate Policy: Specific Formulas and Emission Targets to Build on Copenhagen and Cancun

Valentina Bosetti and Jeffrey Frankel — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:58:25 -0500

In pursuit of a workable successor to the Kyoto Protocol, this study offers a framework of formulas that produces precise numerical targets for emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases, in all regions of the world in all decades of this century....Firms, consumers, and researchers base their current decisions to invest in plant and equipment, consumer durables, or new technological possibilities on the expected future price of carbon: If government commitments are not credible from the start, then they will not raise the expected future carbon price.

AgroDiplomacy: Growing Relations between Latin America and Africa

Calestous Juma — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:35:22 -0500

"The rising concern over global food price volatility has put agriculture at the center of international diplomacy. But unlike the 1950s when food aid became a major tool in international relations, modern interactions among states are being defined by trade and knowledge transfer. A new field — agricultural diplomacy (AgroDiplomacy) — is emerging as countries learn more about their shared ecological experiences and agricultural trade interests. The prospects for building such relations are evident in the rise in cooperation between Africa and Latin America."

South Sudan Needs to Retain its Army—to Fight for Development

Calestous Juma — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:14:56 -0500

"Costa Rica abolished its army in 1948 and reallocated part of the financial resources thus saved to internal security, health, education and culture. Today the country's army comprises medical doctors, scientists, engineers, teachers and other productive members of society."

Human Capacity

Calestous Juma — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:46:02 -0500

"Nowhere is the missed opportunity to build human capacity more evident than in the case of women and agriculture in Africa. The majority of farmers in Africa are women. Women provide 70%–80% of the labor for food crops grown in Africa, an effort without which African citizens would not eat. Female farmers make up 48% of the African labor force. This work by women is a crucial effort in nations where the economy is usually based on agriculture."

Advances in Science, Technology, and Engineering

Calestous Juma — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:54:55 -0500

"The Green Revolution played a critical role in helping to overcome chronic food shortages in Latin America and Asia. The Green Revolution was largely a result of the creation of new institutional arrangements aimed at using existing technology to improve agricultural productivity. African countries are faced with enormous technological challenges. But they also have access to a much larger pool of scientific and technical knowledge than was available when the Green Revolution was launched in the 1950s."

God and Democratic Diplomacy

Timothy Samuel Shah, Daniel Philpott and Monica Duffy Toft — Wed, 18 May 2011 08:04:35 -0500

"Democracy, with its open debate and its popular control, was supposed to have exposed religion as a crutch for primitive people. Surprisingly, though, religion has profited precisely from the open debate and room to operate that democracy affords. The best squelchers of religion are, in fact, secular dictators."

God and Political Science

Timothy Samuel Shah, Daniel Philpott and Monica Duffy Toft — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:41:31 -0500

"...[T]he success of these political enemies of God helped to make it seem that secularization was the wave of the future. They made it seem that religion was a dying supernova, enjoying its penultimate glow before disappearing from history. They made it easily forgivable to think of the 20^th century as the 'Godless Century,' at least as far as politics was concerned, making it increasingly common to ask whether God was dead, as Time magazine famously did on its cover in April 1966. They made it possible to view religion as absolutely defenseless in the face of modernity."

God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics

Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott and Timothy Samuel Shah — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 19:41:01 -0500

Is religion a force for good or evil in world politics? How much influence does it have? Despite predictions of its decline, religion has resurged in political influence across the globe, helped by the very forces that were supposed to bury it: democracy, globalization, and technology. And despite recent claims that religion is exclusively irrational and violent, its political influence is in fact diverse, sometimes promoting civil war and terrorism but at other times fostering democracy, reconciliation, and peace. Looking across the globe, the authors explain what generates these radically divergent behaviors.