STRATEGY AND NATIONAL SECURITY
AP Photo
November 17, 2008
"Real Conflicts and Imaginary Ideologies"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"We must sort out the real causes of conflict from the manufactured stresses and imagined threats of the many ideological warriors on both sides who still plague and hamper us all."
Martha Stewart
October 30, 2008
Brent Scowcroft Addresses International Issues Facing the Next President
News
Former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft called on the next president to engage in civilized dialogue on foreign policy during a Forum address Wednesday evening (Oct. 29) at Harvard Kennedy School.
Liz Lynch
Winter 2008-09
"Belfer Center Alums Launch Center for New American Strategy (CNAS)"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
Kurt Campbell and Michèle Flournoy, both alums of the Belfer Center, founded The Center for a New American Strategy in February 2007. The organization has grown into an intellectual, nonpartisan national think tank focusing on national security and defense.
Deborah Gordon
Winter 2008-09
"Preventive Defense Project Encourages Taipei-Beijing Dialogue"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Jennifer C. Bulkeley, Research Fellow, International Security Program
Over the past decade, the Belfer Center’s Preventive Defense Project (PDP) has organized a series of “Track II” dialogues between Taiwan, mainland China, and the United States – dialogues that have contributed substantially to diffusing tensions between leaders in the U.S. and China. The off-the-record discussions offer participants an opportunity to speak candidly about issues often deemed too controversial to be discussed in official Track I bilateral discussions. At meetings in July 2008, the PDP delegation encouraged participants from Taiwan and mainland China to seize the opportunity for an improved relationship.
Martha Stewart
Winter 2008-09
"Managing the Atom's Matthew Bunn Named Associate Professor of Public Policy"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
The Belfer Center's Matthew Bunn has been appointed associate professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Bunn, co-principal investigator for the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom and lead author of the Securing the Bomb series of reports, brings extensive experience and research on nuclear issues to the position.
Belfer Center
Winter 2008-09
"For the Next President: Center Scholars Suggest Priority Actions on Security, Climate/Energy and the Financial Crisis"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
With a new president of the United States soon to be elected, Belfer Center scholars offer their suggestions to the next president on issues of national security, climate/energy policy, and the financial crisis.
October 13, 2008
"The Simplistic Allure of Militarism"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Among the problems the senior American military and intelligence leaders acknowledge these days in Afghanistan are a robust and expanding heroin trade, the limited impact of the central government in Kabul, a steady stream of militants from next door Pakistan where they enjoy safe havens and popular support, and a weak economy.
AP Photo
September 24, 2008
"Tzipi Livni"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"Her challenge is very similar to the one that her father faced in 1938 when he joined the Irgun underground in Palestine: How to safeguard a Zionist homeland and state for Jews, in a land that had been majority owned and populated by Palestinian Arabs?"
Fall 2008
"Making the World Safe for Partial Democracy? Questioning the Premises of Democracy Promotion"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 2, volume 33
By Arthur Goldsmith, Former Senior Research Fellow, Intrastate Conflict Program/International Security Program, 2004-2005
Democracy promotion is a favored strategy to advance the cause of world peace, especially in the Greater Middle East, but undifferentiated democracy promotion has two faulty premises. First, all progress toward the establishment of democratic regimes does not necessarily make the global community safer. Second, regime change is not something external actors have the capacity to direct along desired pathways. The first assumption fails to consider the well-documented security problems caused by partial democracies. The second assumption overstates the ability of powerful outsiders to induce transitions to full democracy. These research findings are grounds for cautious and selective democracy promotion, not a blanket approach that is indifferent to the composition of the regimes designated to be reformed and democratized.
Fall 2008
"Wishful Thinking or Buying Time? The Logic of British Appeasement in the 1930s"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 2, volume 33
By Norrin M. Ripsman and Jack S. Levy
British appeasement was primarily a strategy of buying time for rearmament against Germany. British leaders understood the Nazi menace and did not expect that appeasement would avoid an eventual war with Germany. They believed that by the time of the Rhineland crisis of 1936 the balance of power had already shifted in Germany’sfavor, but that British rearmament would work to reverse the balance by the end of the decade. Appeasement was a strategy to delay an expected confrontation with Germany until the military balance was more favorable.
