109 Items

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Evaluating the Nuclear Posture Review

In February, the Pentagon released a new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), a comprehensive overview of the nation’s nuclear forces, their disposition, and plans for the future. Here, Belfer Center experts share their assessments of this NPR and the future of America’s nuclear capabilities.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson listens as President Donald Trump announces that the United States will designate North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Monday, Nov. 20, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

News - The Economist

Donald Trump May Be Bluffing Over a Pre-Emptive Strike on North Korea

    Author:
  • David Rennie
| Jan. 25, 2018

The last time that America almost risked a pre-emptive strike on North Korea the gamble offered a spectacular pay-off. Ashton Carter, a leading architect of that plan, recalls that his scheme for bombing the Yongbyon nuclear facility in 1994 assumed that in one or two days the entirety of the regime’s nuclear programme could be levelled and entombed in rubble. Mr Carter, who went on to become defence secretary in the Obama administration, now thinks that an American first strike would only put “a significant dent” in North Korea’s arsenal of nuclear devices and bombmaking sites. “The difference today is that the North Koreans are very good at hiding, burying and moving around their nuclear infrastructure,” says Mr Carter, now at Harvard University.

Audio - National Review Online

For the Defense: Ash Carter

| Dec. 07, 2017

Ash Carter is a physicist and a defense-policy expert, having served in government periodically for decades. He was secretary of defense from 2015 to 2017. He has spent his academic career at Harvard, where he is today. In this “Q&A,” Jay Nordlinger asks him about some of the biggest issues: nuclear proliferation, North Korea, Iran, the size of the U.S. military. He also asks about the relation between our servicemen and the general American population. Is there too great a gulf between them? Do people sentimentalize our military? Is it okay to say “Thank you for your service”?

Photo of a man standing in front of a screen showing a TV program image regarding a North Korea's missile launch.

AP

Analysis & Opinions - NPR

Former Secretary Of Defense Ash Carter On North Korea's Latest Missile Launch

| Nov. 30, 2017

Belfer Center Director and former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter was interviewed about North Korea by Robert Siegel on NPR's All Things Considered. Carter said that while U.S. defense systems should stop a North Korean attack, he believes the threat must be met with coercive diplomacy.