International Security Program

Drawing on historical materials collected from research at eight archives, this seminar will offer a theory of presidential decision-making in response to mass killing, illuminating the historical factors that typically lead to changes in policy and uncovering dramatic stories of internal government infighting, secret deliberations, and cover-ups, as various administrations have struggled to define their policy response.

The United States has been remarkably successful at using the security guarantee as a non-proliferation tool, but during the Cold War, three countries — Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan — were in danger of slipping out from under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Why did these states feel the need to start down the nuclear path, despite being under the protective wing of its nuclear-armed superpower ally? Relying on declassified national security archival documents, this seminar sheds light on the interplay between alliance dynamics and nuclear weapons decision making.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

This seminar will explore the paradoxical phenomenon of commercial ties between Mao's China and international capitalism during the founding years of the People's Republic of China.

This seminar examines the varying strategies of insurgent diplomacy, and more specifically, asks when and why rebel groups focus their diplomatic attention on certain outside actors over others.

Speaker: Nicholas L. Miller, Stanton Nuclear Security Junior Faculty Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

Much conventional wisdom suggests that states with nuclear energy programs are more likely to seek or acquire nuclear weapons. In this seminar, the speaker will argue that the link between nuclear energy programs and proliferation is overstated. While energy programs increase the technical capacity of a state to build nuclear weapons, they also (1) increase the costliness of nonproliferation sanctions, (2) increase the odds that a parallel nuclear weapons program is detected, and (3) reduce the incentives to weaponize by providing a hedging alternative. Collectively, these three mechanisms help explain why states with nuclear energy programs have not been significantly more likely to seek or acquire nuclear weapons historically. 

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Speaker: Calder Walton, Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy, International Security Program

Stretching from the Second World War to the early Cold War, this seminar will examine the origins, evolution, stresses, and strains of British and U.S. intelligence relations—the closest intelligence relationship between two powers in history. Using a series of case studies, from signals intelligence-sharing agreements to atomic espionage and covert action during Britain's end of empire, it will explore the impact that British and U.S. intelligence had on post-war international relations. While collaborating together in unprecedented ways, it will be shown that, in some instances in the post-war years, British and U.S. intelligence worked at cross-purposes—and were also disastrously penetrated by their opponents, Soviet intelligence. This seminar will also offer some (arguably much-needed) policy-relevant historical lessons for governments and intelligence communities today.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Speaker: Vera Mironova, Pre-Doctoral Fellow, International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

When and why do states assist refugees? Throughout history, states have always crafted international legal agreements to assist refugees that serve both their own interests and the refugees they purport to protect. Even as states provide humanitarian assistance to refugees, they may also use the existence of refugee flows as a political pawn. This seminar will examine this phenomenon with particular reference to the case of Vietnamese refugees following U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.