MEMORANDUM
August 22, 2008
Memo to President-elect McBama
Aspen Strategy Group
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
Graham Allison writes in a memo to a fictional President-elect McBama on the suject of nuclear terrorism, "You pledged that you would make preventing this catastrophe an organizing principle of your administration. This memo provides a brief outline of strategy and organization to fulfill that promise."
July 3, 2008
Open Teaching Positions: Dubai School of Government
The Dubai School of Government is currently recruiting for Assistant Professor(s) of Public Policy.
AP Photo
June 13, 2008
Reinforcing the Global Nuclear Order: The Role of the IAEA
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School and Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom
The high-level Commission of Eminent Persons advising the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that meeting the current nuclear challenges and seizing the current opportunities will require a fundamentally reinvigorated global nuclear order, featuring a strengthened IAEA with "additional authority, resources, personnel, and technology." Without a "bold agenda" of steps to strengthen the nuclear order, the Commission warned that there were real risks that terrorists might get a nuclear bomb, that a nuclear accident might occur, or that, as the UN High-Level Panel warned, the world could suffer "a cascade of nuclear proliferation." Preventing such events, the Commission emphasized, is essential for nuclear energy to grow enough to contribute to mitigating climate change, making safety, security, and nonproliferation essential foundations for nuclear energy's future.
AP Photo
April 24, 2008
Case Study: Red Teaming Iran's Supreme Leader
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
When the key finding of the December National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran was emerging, the intelligence community assigned a group to "red team" Iran's behavior. They were asked to assume that Iran's intention was to deceive the United States into concluding that the Iranian nuclear program had been halted. Although the red team made a persuasive case that Iran's actions were consistent with this objective, the intelligence community ultimately rejected that hypothesis and came to the conclusion it reported.
AP Photo
March 14, 2008
The Transfer of Power in Russia
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
Though the outcome of the presidential election in Russia was a foregone conclusion, many questions remain about when and how which powers will be transferred from whom to whom. Also included below are speculations from Russian colleagues about what the new administration and cabinet may look like.
Summer 2007
Two-pager: Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
By Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government; Member of the Board and Joseph Aldy, Co-Director, Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements
The goal of the project is to help identify key design elements of a scientifically sound, economically rational, and politically pragmatic post-2012 international policy architecture for global climate change.
AP Images
Updated September 2007
Case Study: Blocking Iran’s Nuclear Ambitions
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
As the conditions in Iraq deteriorate, the rise of Iran becomes more vivid. Many now foresee the rise of Shiite power across the Arab crescent. With the wind at its back, Iran’s nuclear program is on track to cross the point of no return this year.
March 5, 2004
Topic for March 16: ?Smart Primacy: ?Etiquette,? ?Style,? and ?Technique? v. Policy Choice and Deeper Forces?
June 9, 2003
Comments on the 2 June 2003 US Senate Republican Policy Committee document, ?The Shaky Science Behind the Climate Change Sense of the Congress Resolution?
By John P. Holdren, Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program
