Events

Speaker: David Kearn, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

The book project seeks to explain the divergence of views of within the strategic community after the signing of the SALT I Accords and the subsequent shift in U.S. strategic nuclear policy away from "assured destruction" to "nuclear warfighting" throughout the 1970s and culminating in the Reagan administrations "prevailing strategy."

Open to Harvard ID Holders Only: Admittance will be on a first come–first served basis. Coffee &Tea Provided.

Speaker: Colleen Larkin, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

President Jimmy Carter entered office committed to reducing the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. foreign policy. He espoused the logic of mutually assured destruction and hoped for major arms control progress. Yet by the end of his presidency, he had embraced a competitive nuclear posture and accelerated the arms race. What explains this shift in Carter’s strategy? 

Open to Harvard ID Holders Only: Admittance will be on a first come–first served basis. Coffee &Tea Provided.

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with General Glen VanHerck, Commander of NORAD and USNORTHCOM. General VanHerck will join us virtually to discuss homeland defense in the context of today’s dynamic strategic environment, as well as address the necessary steps to ensuring security for the United States and its interests. Ambassador Paula Dobriansky, Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project, will moderate.

This event will be in-person only and limited to Harvard ID holders. 

Speaker: Matthew Hartwell, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

When and why is population protection considered an element of U.S. nuclear deterrence? While civil defense played a negligible role in nuclear strategy throughout the early part of the Cold War, beginning in the late 1950s, the limits to the program materialized twice as a potential gap in the U.S.-Soviet nuclear balance. Examining the public and congressional reaction to the programs, this seminar will demonstrate how domestic political barriers undermined the Kennedy and Reagan administrations' attempts to alter the role of population protection in U.S. nuclear strategy.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0ld-qrrzkpHtGKfE1mVLLIZ2s8dLCBcSp1

Speaker: Linde Desmaele, Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow, Security Studies Program, MIT; Senior Associate Researcher, Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy, Free University of Brussels (VUB)

Linde Desmaele presents insights from her ongoing research project about the impact of the unfolding shift to a tripolar nuclear age on the United States’ extended nuclear deterrence commitment to Europe. She proposes a framework to account for implications of the evolution from a Eurocentric nuclear deterrence regime to a world in which the United States faces two nuclear power competitors.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vceCprT4oGtDWYUCLPtCQv38JSuzntwNY

Speaker: Mailys Mangin, Associate, Project on Managing the Atom

How can scholars and policymakers explain the IAEA's sudden involvement in nuclear proliferation "crises" from 1990 onwards? This seminar explains the transformations of the IAEA's nuclear non-proliferation activities based on a double transformation of the logic of the situation, or context of action, in which it intervenes. On the one hand, the reconfiguration of the position of the United States on the international scene, and on the other hand, the consequent reconfiguration of the internal struggles in the United States to define "national security," in particular the threat posed by the horizontal proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJckfumqrT8sHdx6OkaJWeVDe10QfsSuvwyz

As the United States faces alignment between a violently resurgent Russia and a full-spectrum competitor in China, join the Belfer Center's Applied History Project for an open session of our Applied History Working Group. Its members—distinguished historians and public servants—study the past to illuminate the most pressing challenges we face today.

A Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) seminar with Mariana Budjeryn, Research Associate with MTA, and Amb. Steven Pifer, William J. Perry Fellow, CISAC, Stanford University, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.

Speaker: Joshua A. Schwartz,  Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow, International Security Program

Despite the substantive importance of nuclear weapons to international peace and security, there is significant disagreement among scholars about whether the normative constraints on their use are strong or weak. This seminar presents a theory of in-group bias and tests it using three survey experiments; two in the United States and one in India. Promisingly and in accordance with theoretical expectations, the results show that the public is significantly less likely to approve of a nuclear attack when it is conducted by a non-allied government compared to their own domestic government or that of a close ally.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwuceGrrj4uH93VW_G-E4f9u12dPtpVZBci

Speaker: Marino Auffant, Ernest May Fellow in History & Policy, International Security Program

How did the 1970s Energy Crisis reorder the world? Until 1973, successive U.S. administrations had relied on Venezuela and Canada as the country's main energy partners and had actively restricted oil imports from the Middle East. However, with the promise of Saudi petrodollars inflows, the United States ended these longstanding partnerships and tied its economic fate to that of the Persian Gulf. This shift had long-lasting consequences: Not only did the United States make itself vulnerable to the Arab oil embargo, but this First Oil Shock gave rise to the world's current monetary architecture, entangled the United States geopolitically in the Persian Gulf, and destabilized the Middle East by spawning the Iranian and Iraqi nuclear programs.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYud-2oqjgtGNQql4LL49mfK3w1KHzWmm1b