International Security

Speaker: Robert Ralston, Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow, International Security Program

This seminar explores the causes and consequences of declinism in great powers. Why does the topic of the nation's international decline emerge in the political discourse of great powers? Why do leaders choose to focus on the nation's decline during some periods and not others? What are the foreign policy consequences of such declinist discourse? After outlining a theory of declinism's emergence and its consequences, this seminar focuses on 1970s Britain, the emergence of the New Right, and the declinist narratives of politicians like Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph.

Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUof-qurTIpE9HK9PwJ2yb2yGXWT0DwrHF3

Speakers: Michael Weintraub, Associate Professor, Universidad de los Andes Bogotá, Colombia; Robert A. Blair, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University

Governments across the developing world rely on the armed forces for domestic policing operations. Advocates of these "mano dura" (iron fist) policies view them as a necessary measure to control violent crime, while detractors claim they undermine human rights without reducing crime. The speakers experimentally evaluate a militarized policing intervention in Cali, Colombia, the country's third largest city and among its most violent.

Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwoduyrrzksHtcUaM2Dj9vKMhnSG3pxDPBq

Speaker: Augusta Dell'Omo, Ernest May Fellow in History & Policy, International Security Program

This seminar examines how the institutional failure of the Reagan White House to invigorate a sterile sanctions debate created a window of opportunity for pro–South Africa conservatives. Led by White House Director of the Office of Communications Patrick Buchanan, a cadre of pro–South Africa Congressmen, and South Africa's surrogates, the pro-apartheid movement injected a white supremacist dialogue into the White House's discussions on sanctions policy that fundamentally undercut the efforts of the White House to rally a successful veto defense

Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYpfuGsqT4jGtfNZ081oEvhhMGJSOugoCMh

Speakers: Meredith Crowley, Reader in International Economics, University of Cambridge; Gregory Shaffer, Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Irvine; Mark Wu, Vice Dean, Graduate Program and International Legal Studies and Henry Stimson Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Moderator: Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School

Arrangements designed to manage global trade and investment in new technologies will be a critical part of any future world order.

Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYld-2rrD8sHNCn-5Gk-s48kTqNV1MBF7Xp

Speaker: Julius Weitzdörfer, Junior Professor of East Asian Law, Hagen University, Germany

Risks stemming from CBRN-terrorism (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear) are characterized by relatively low frequency, yet extraordinary potential impact. To help reduce the enormous potential costs associated with radiological and nuclear terrorism, drawing on cases from Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this seminar seeks to derive and improve recovery policies towards a well-rounded, holistic approach to mitigating the risks of nuclear and radiological terrorism.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAoc-yhrjwrEtEXOUTdHqGhMvLscB5VO38u

Speaker: Sanne Verschuren, Research Fellow, International Security Program

Rather than assuming convergence in countries' military capabilities, this seminar examines why and how countries decide to develop different weapon capabilities within similar domains of warfare. To answer these questions, this seminar will explore the role of ideas and institutional bargaining in shaping decisions about military technology. This talk will subsequently apply the theory to the development of missile defense in the post–Cold War period.

Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUrcOmtqD0jE9R3_UZriEHVVRxUjR8q8HZs

Speaker: Jacqueline L. Hazelton, Associate, International Security Program

This seminar presents a theoretical mechanism explaining the hierarchy of interests the counterinsurgent government considers and the options available to it when a great power intervener insists on reforms. It demonstrates this mechanism in a paired set of cases, South Vietnam under President Ngo Dinh Diem, when the United States was supporting the government in an advisory role, and under President Nguyen Van Thieu, when the United States was withdrawing from the war as quickly as possible.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJApceCpqD8oHdCDM-o59vdrub4glAuUoFqc

A Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) seminar with Abolghasem Bayyenat, Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow with MTA and the International Security Program.

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Speaker: Thomas Cavanna, Assistant Research Professor, Center for Strategic Studies, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University

After decades of engagement, European leaders have recently adopted an increasingly defensive stance vis-à-vis China. Experts are thoroughly debating the implications of this pushback for the United States. But less attention has been given to the deeper historical and geopolitical dimensions of the matter: What does China's rise in Europe mean for U.S. grand strategy?

Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting:  https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcrcOGqqzsiHdOyZkV41u_yqYbdbXbuDWiN

Speaker: Samuel Ramani, D.Phil. Candidate in International Relations, St. Antony's College, University of Oxford

This seminar will examine this contradiction in the Russia-China relationship and assess whether lessons from the Cold War–era Sino-Soviet Split can help predict the partnership's future direction. It will also examine how these contradictory trends in Russia-China relations could impact U.S. foreign policy and assess whether Russia and China chiefly pose a combined threat or two disparate challenges to U.S. hegemony in the post-pandemic era.

Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEtduCrqTkvGNfXBx_5jgfRvTV0s5aAFKgP