On 16 July in Helsinki, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will meet his American colleague Donald Trump. The leaders will discuss a number of complicated questions, but the summit will be a success, even if the government leaders cannot reach agreement - so thinks retired Brigadier General and Associate Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, Kevin Ryan. Ryan talked to "Eurasia Expert" about the significance of the meeting between the American and Russian leaders for relations between the two countries, the future of NATO, and explained how American space forces will differ from Russian or Chinese space forces.

• U.S. and Russian experts ponder denuclearization of Korean Peninsula.
• Graham Allison on changing the odds of nuclear terrorism.
• William Tobey on insights on UNSCR 1540.
• Siegfried Hecker calls for revival of U.S.-Russian nuclear cooperation.

Lieutenant General (ret) Douglas Lute, former U.S. NATO Ambassador and a Belfer Center Senior Fellow, and Brigadier General (ret) Kevin Ryan, Belfer Center Associate and founder of the U.S.-Russia Elbe Group, traveled to Moscow in late fall to participate in a conference on U.S.-Russia Relations hosted by the Club of Military Leaders at the Russian General Staff Academy. The conference participants discussed the state of relations between the two countries and explored ways forward.

• U.S. experts debate whether russia can be a viable CT partner for America.
• Graham Allison on importance of prevention of nuclear terrorism.
• Russia’s National Guard is mulling drone defense at NPP.
• U.S. Nuclear Posture Review on countering nuclear terrorism.

Many of the threats and missions identified in the 2018 National Defense Strategy Summary are similar to those of earlier defense strategies. But the priorities have changed dramatically. The 2018 NDS declares that “interstate strategic competition, not terrorism, is now the primary national security concern,” and the United States is in a “long-term strategic competition” with its main adversaries Russia and China.

• Elbe Group members participate in Moscow conference.
• U.S. and Russian experts weigh in on North Korea’s nuclear missile program, call for preservation of the nuclear deal with Iran.
• NNSA Reports that some nuclear security cooperation with Russia is continuing.
• Saradzhyan testifies on potential for U.S.-Russian counter-terrorism cooperation.
• Bunn and Roth ponder effects of a nuclear terrorist bomb explosion.

Elbe Group is meeting tackles nuclear terrorism.

William Tobey weighs in on U.S. policy toward Russia.

Siegfried Hecker’s Doomed to Cooperate wins a U.S. national award.

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen assesses U.S.-Russian interaction on terrorism.

Olli Heinonen warns that the nuclear terrorist threat is getting increasingly sophisticated.

Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former senior fellow with the Belfer Center and long-time intelligence officer, has been named Director of the Center’s Intelligence and Defense Projects and Project on Saudi and GCC Security. 

For two hours on a March afternoon, Harvard Kennedy School’s Bell Hall buzzed as Kennedy School students huddled for 15-minute one-on-one sessions with Belfer Center fellows and project directors to get career advice and to ask questions about the others’ career trajectories, research, and methods.

A new Belfer Center initiative seeks to research and analyze defense, security, and intelligence issues on the Arabian Peninsula.