Belfer Center Regions

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.

Reining in Rebellion: The Decline of Political Violence in South America, 1830–1929

Belfer Center — Mar 12, 2024

Mar 12, 2024

After a century of rebellion, South America experienced a rapid decline in revolts in the early 1900s. Historical narratives and an analysis of a comprehensive new dataset show that the decrease stemmed in large part from the expansion and professionalization of the region’s militaries, which were driven by an export boom and the threat of interstate conflict.

Is Nuclear Proliferation Back?

Belfer Center — Mar 5, 2024

Mar 5, 2024

Joseph Nye considers lessons from his own work on preventing the spread of nuclear technology in the 1970s.

H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable 15-26 on Hazelton, Bullets not Ballots

Belfer Center — Feb 2, 2024

Feb 2, 2024

Jacqueline L. Hazelton's Bullets not Ballots: Success in Counterinsurgency Warfare (Cornell University Press, 2021) is the subject of a Roundtable Review.

A US Ambassador Working for Cuba? Charges Against Former Diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha Spotlight Havana's Importance in the World of Spying

Belfer Center — Dec 15, 2023

Dec 15, 2023

Calder Walton writes that if proved, Victor Manuel Rocha's espionage would place him among the longest-serving spies in modern times. Allowing him to operate as a spy in the senior echelons of the U.S. government for so long would represent a staggering U.S. security failure.

Judging Henry Kissinger

Belfer Center — Nov 30, 2023

Nov 30, 2023

Joseph S. Nye writes that evaluating ethics in international relations is difficult, and Kissinger's legacy is particularly complex. Over his long tenure in government, he had many great successes, including with China and the Soviet Union and the Middle East. Kissinger also had major failures, including in how the Vietnam War ended. But on net, his legacy is positive. In a world haunted by the specter of nuclear war, his decisions made the international order more stable and safer.

The Con-Man Realism of Vivek Ramaswamy

Belfer Center — Sep 5, 2023

Sep 5, 2023

Stephen Walt critiques Vivek Ramaswamy's claim of being a foreign policy realist.

Making a Case for Investing in Nature: An Interview with Lydia Zemke

Belfer Center — Aug 15, 2023

Aug 15, 2023

As a Predoctoral Research Fellow at the Belfer Center’s Environment and Natural Resources Program and Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Lydia Zemke has spent the last two years studying climate finance in developing countries. As she rounds out her time at the Belfer Center, Zemke she reflects on her research interests, her experience conducting fieldwork in Kenya and Costa Rica, and her advice for other early-career researchers.

Words Matter: The Effect of Moral Language on International Bargaining

Belfer Center — Aug 8, 2023

Aug 8, 2023

When states use moral language in a dispute, they reduce the possibility of compromise. The possibility of military escalation, meanwhile, rises in response to moral language when states’ domestic audiences accuse their governments of hypocrisy for their willingness to compromise. The Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas case explores the theory.

'Our Proud Spirited Fellows' The American Navy in U.S. Public Diplomacy with South America

Belfer Center — Aug 1, 2023

Aug 1, 2023

Using the private journals of commission secretaries Henry Marie Brackenridge and Dr. William Baldwin, as well as Captain Sinclair, this chapter will explore the establishment of American naval identity through its diplomatic experiences in South America. It will also exhibit the role of the U.S. Navy in a proto framework of the Monroe Doctrine.

Improving Migrant Child Welfare at the Southwest Border

Belfer Center — Feb 28, 2023

Feb 28, 2023

Policymakers need to act now and place child welfare professionals, not law enforcement actors, at the border to effectively screen and interview migrant children. Information sharing practices need to be improved, with a movement away from paper documents that can easily get lost to an approach that is digital, secure, and accessible by the child, their guardian, their lawyer, and their doctor. Further, the enforcement processing facilities need to undergo an immediate infrastructural transformation with the addition of new design features that are necessary and sensitive to the majority demographic that are held within facilities—children and families.

These actions are doable and require no legislative action. Migrant children deserve decisive action to ensure that their health, safety, and well-being is not jeopardized as they seek refuge in the United States.

Global Perspectives on the War in Ukraine

Belfer Center — Feb 24, 2023

Feb 24, 2023

The war in Ukraine affects regions around the world in a variety of ways. Belfer Center experts reflect on how the conflict is impacting the countries and regions they study.

Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project: The Promise and Peril of High-Potential Environmental Partnerships

Belfer Center — Feb 9, 2023

Feb 9, 2023

In the first comprehensive post-mortem analysis of the Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project (NKMCAP), Reine Rambert and Amanda Sardonis examine how NKMCAP failed to live up to its potential, by focusing on three different dimensions of partnership effectiveness: 1) the sustainability of the partnership, 2) the effectiveness of the collaboration process itself, and 3) the achievement of the planned objectives. Rambert and Sardonis extract several transferable lessons from the challenges faced by NKMCAP that are highly consequential to partnership effectiveness.

Former Colombian President Iván Duque Discusses Resurgent Left Wing in Latin America at Kennedy School Event

Belfer Center — Nov 18, 2022

Nov 18, 2022

Former Colombian President Iván Duque discussed Latin America’s resurgent left wing and advocated for environmental action at the Harvard Kennedy School on Thursday afternoon.

Nowhere to Hide? Global Policing and the Politics of Extradition

Belfer Center — Nov 2, 2022

Nov 2, 2022

U.S. power extends beyond the military and economic spheres to include policing. The United States has used its global policing power to capture terrorists, warlords, and drug kingpins. But extradition is not simply a bureaucratic tool. States’ geopolitical interests shape their willingness to cooperate with others in extraditing fugitives.

Ukraine and the Cuban Missile Crisis: What Would JFK Do?

Belfer Center — Oct 27, 2022

Oct 27, 2022

Kennedy’s statecraft in the missile crisis provides a rich source of clues that can help illuminate the challenge the United States now faces, and the choices President Joe Biden is making.

The Cuban Missile Crisis at 60: Six Timeless Lessons for Arms Control

Belfer Center — Sep 28, 2022

Sep 28, 2022

As the best documented major crisis in history, in substantial part because Kennedy secretly taped the deliberations in which he and his closest advisers were weighing choices they knew could lead to a catastrophic war, the Cuban missile crisis has become the canonical case study in nuclear statecraft. Over the decades since, key lessons from the crisis have been adapted and applied by the successors of Kennedy and Khrushchev to inform fateful choices.

The Market Rewards Companies That Prioritize National Security

Belfer Center — Aug 12, 2022

Aug 12, 2022

Companies that rely on certain countries in Asia for their supply lines will face continued challenges as geopolitical stresses, let alone global pandemics, cause supply shortages. Beyond causing economic harm, these shortages pose a direct threat to U.S. national security interests.

Pier Competitor: China's Power Position in Global Ports

Belfer Center — May 12, 2022

May 12, 2022

Commercial international port terminals owned and operated by Chinese firms provide dual-use capabilities to the People's Liberation Army during peacetime. They enable China to project power into critical regions worldwide by providing military logistics and intelligence networks.

Soldiers' Dilemma: Foreign Military Training and Liberal Norm Conflict

Belfer Center — May 11, 2022

May 11, 2022

When the U.S. military trains other states’ forces, it tries to impart liberal norms such as respect for human rights. But when liberal norms clash, these soldiers prioritize loyalty to their unit, the military, and shared goals.