REPORTS
November 18, 2008
Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: An Agenda for the Next President
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom and Andrew Newman, Research Associate, Project on Managing the Atom
Matthew Bunn and Andrew Newman outline specific steps that President-elect Obama should take to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism to a fraction of its current level during his first term in office. This paper summarizes the recommendations in Securing the Bomb 2008 and provides additional detail on organizing the U.S. government to prevent nuclear terrorism and on steps that should be taken during the transition and the opening weeks of the new administration.
November 2008
Partnership for Progress
By Xenia Dormandy, Senior Associate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program
The Belfer Center's Xenia Dormandy and Hassan Abbas participated in a working group on the state of Pakistan convened by the Center for American Progress. The resulting report proposes strategies for enhanced security, democratization, and economic growth.
September 30, 2008
Internationalization of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Goals, Strategies, and Challenges
"This report is intended for all those who are concerned about the need for assuring fuel for new reactors and at the same time limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. This audience includes the United States and Russia, other nations that currently supply nuclear material and technology, many other countries contemplating starting or growing nuclear power programs, and the international organizations that support the safe, secure functioning of the international nuclear fuel cycle, most prominently the International Atomic Energy Agency."
Professor Matthew Bunn served on the Committee on Internationalization of the Civilian Nuclear Fuel Cycle, a National Academy of Sciences–Russian Academy of Sciences joint committee which produced this report.
September 19, 2008
Meeting the Challenge: U.S. Policy Toward Iranian Nuclear Development
By Ambassador Daniel Coats, Charles Robb, Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Harvard & Stanford Universities, Admiral (ret.) Gregory G. Johnson, General (ret.) Ronald Keys, Dr. Edward Morse, Steve Rademaker, Dennis Ross, International Council Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Henry Sokolski, General (ret.) Chuck Wald and Ken Weinstein
A Task Force sponsored by the National Security Initiative, a program of the Bipartisan Policy Center, released a ground-breaking report identifying the regional and global threats posed by a nuclear weapons-capable Iran and recommending a new, robust and comprehensive strategy designed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability.
September 2008
The Next Chapter
By Xenia Dormandy, Senior Associate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The Belfer Center's Xenia Dormandy participated in the Pakistan Policy Working Group, which was convened in January 2008 to assess the state of U.S.-Pakistan relations and to offer ideas to the next U.S. President and his Administration on managing this critical partnership.
July 12, 2008
IAEA Safeguards: Dealing Preventively with Non-Compliance
In a study commissioned by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Pierre Goldschmidt, former Deputy Director-General for Safeguards at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), outlines a new approach to strengthening the IAEA's hand in cases when states violate their safeguards agreements. Goldschmidt argues that the UN Security Council should pass a generic resolution laying out steps the Security Council would take to deal with any state found to be in violation of its safeguards obligations. Any state which violated its safeguards pact would be required to accept a broader inspection regime going well beyond the Additional Protocol until the IAEA was able to draw the conclusion that all of its nuclear facilities and materials were under safeguards. If the IAEA is unable to draw such a conclusion with 60 days, the state would be required to cease all its sensitive nuclear activities. Goldschmidt offers a draft text for the resolution and for the "Model Temporary Complementary Protocol" that defines the broader inspection regime, along with an article-by-article analysis.
July 9, 2008
Report of the Harvard University Task Force on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
By William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development; Co-director, Sustainability Science Program; Faculty Chair, ENRP; and John P. Holdren, Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology and Public Policy Program
Harvard University released the report of its Greenhouse Gas Task Force. The task force, appointed by President Drew Faust in February, proposes elements of a framework for much-intensified efforts to reduce the University's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as part of a broader effort to promote environmental sustainability.
July 3, 2008
Biofuels and Sustainable Development
By Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program and William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development; Co-director, Sustainability Science Program; Faculty Chair, ENRP;
The goals and concerns surrounding the debate over government policies related to the greater use and production of biofuels were addressed in an executive session convened by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Venice International University on May 19th and 20th, 2008.
July 2008
Project on National Security Reform - Preliminary Findings
By Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Harvard & Stanford Universities, David M. Abshire, Norman R. Augustine, Ambassador Robert D. Blackwill, Charles G. Boyd, Daniel W. Christman, General Wesley K. Clark, Senior Advisor, Preventive Defense Project, Ruth A. David, Michele A. Flournoy, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1989-1993, Leon Fuerth, Newt Gingrich, James R. Locher III, James M. Loy, Jessica Tuchman Mathews, John McLaughlin, Joseph S. Nye, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, Carlos Pascual, Amb. Thomas R. Pickering, General Brent Scowcroft, Jeffrey H. Smith, Dr. James B. Steinberg and Ken Weinstein
The Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) - a bipartisan, private-public partnership sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Presidency - has released its preliminary findings on needed changes in the national security system (covering both international and homeland security). PNSR's goal is approval of a new system early in the next administration. It envisions three sets of reforms: new presidential directives or executive orders, a new national security act, and amendments to Senate and House rules.
June 2008
100 Grams (and Counting...): Notes from the Nuclear Underworld
This report on the 2006 seizure of weapon-grade highly enriched uranium (HEU) in Georgia, by journalist Michael Bronner, provides new insights on both nuclear smugglers and those trying to stop them.
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