For a Center committed to advancing policy-relevant knowledge about the most important international challenges, the current avalanche of seemingly insurmountable challenges is a time of great excitement.

"In the twenty-first century, the United States and China are destined to be the largest and strongest powers in the international system. China's rise has been proclaimed to be "peaceful," but in a prior century the American rise was scarcely pacific. The United States threatened war with Canada and Britain and actuallt fought against Mexico, annexing nearly half of that country in 1848. China was also vigilant and quick to react in its neighborhood. as U.S. forces neared the Yalu River in October 1950, China intervened in the Korean War, even though the United States possessed nuclear weapons and beijing did not. Neither state has been relaxed in the presence of challenging neighbors."

The Belfer Center's Director, Graham Allison, focuses on the upcoming academic year and the plans for the Belfer Center.

In my course this spring on "Central Challenges of American Foreign Policy," I have students write strategic options memos to the President or other key national security officials in response to "mini-cases" that pose challenges on the agenda today.

The question is suddenly urgent: Could the inconceivable happen? President Bush has previously warned the world that Osama bin Laden is seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction. Now, bin Laden himself claims to have chemical and nuclear weapons -- and "the right to use them." We cannot know for certain whether he is bluffing, but Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has confirmed that documents detailing how to make nuclear weapons have been found in an al Qaeda safe house in Kabul. And we can certainly expect that as the noose tightens aroundthe terrorist''s neck, he and his associates will become increasingly desperate.

Much of the news coverage of Saturday's summit between Presidents Bush and Putin focused on traditional security concerns. But at least as important are the economic relations between the U.S. and Russia. It's time to get this important issue right -- and to end an era dominated by the International Monetary Fund.

The single best volume analyzing the defining moment in the nuclear age, the original edition of Essence of Decision is a classic work that has influenced generations of students, scholars, and policy makers. The new edition of this best-selling text includes comprehensive synthesis of all new evidence — including recently declassified Kennedy tapes and Soviet files. Not only revised, but completely rewritten, the new edition provides deeper and clearer answers to an enduring question: how should citizens understand the actions of their governments?

What is the message of the Oklahoma City bombing for American national security? First, the oft-repeated assertion that with the end of the Cold War, the United States faces no direct or immediate threat to our security at home is dead wrong. As the most open society on a shrinking globe, America's democracy is also most vulnerable to terrorists' attacks. Such actions threaten not only our security but also our freedom.

December 1992: This Report addresses the question of how the dispute between Japan and Russia can be resolved to achieve fully normalized relations between these two great nations. The principal obstacle to normalization is a group of four small islands that stand as relics of World War II and symbols of the Cold War.