Hot Off the Presses

A sampling of books by Belfer Center authors:

Waging War, Planning Peace: U.S. Noncombat Operations and Major Wars

By Aaron Rapport, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program; Cornell Studies in Security Affairs, Cornell University Press (March 2015)

As the U.S. experience in Iraq following the 2003 invasion made abundantly clear, failure to properly plan for risks associated with postconflict stabilization and reconstruction can have a devastating impact on the overall success of a military mission. In Waging War, Planning Peace, Aaron Rapport investigates how U.S. presidents and their senior advisers have managed vital noncombat activities while the nation is in the midst of fighting or preparing to fight major wars. He argues that research from psychology—specifically, construal-level theory—can help explain how individuals reason about the costs of postconflict noncombat operations that they perceive as lying in the distant future.

In addition to preparations for “Phase IV” in the lead-up to the Iraq War, Rapport looks at the occupation of Germany after World War II, the planned occupation of North Korea in 1950, and noncombat operations in Vietnam in 1964 and 1965. Applying his insights to these cases, he finds that civilian and military planners tend to think about near-term tasks in concrete terms, seriously assessing the feasibility of the means they plan to employ to secure valued ends.

“Why is the United States often unprepared for the peace that inevitably follows war?...Aaron Rapport’s intriguing answer, well grounded in theory and history, is essential reading for analysts of decision making and of American foreign policy.”

—Jack S. Levy,
Board of Governors’ Professor,
Rutgers University

The Ethics of Nuclear Energy: Risk, Justice and Democracy in the Post-Fukushima Era

Edited by Behnam Taebi, Research Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Manging the Atom; and Sabine Roeser; Cambridge University Press (Forthcoming, September 2015)

Despite the nuclear accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant in Japan, a growing number of countries are interested in expanding or introducing nuclear energy. However, nuclear energy production and nuclear waste disposal give rise to pressing ethical questions that society needs to face. This book takes up this challenge with essays by an international team of scholars focusing on the key issues of risk, justice, and democracy. The essays consider a range of ethical issues including radiological protection, the influence of gender in the acceptability of nuclear risk, and environmental, international, and intergenerational justice in the context of nuclear energy.

The Great War of Our Time: The CIA’s Fight Against Terrorism—From al Qa’ida to ISIS

By Michael J. Morell, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; with Bill Harlow; Grand Central Publishing (May 2015)

The Great War of Our Time offers an unprecedented assessment of the CIA while at the forefront of our nation’s war against al-Qa’ida and during the most remarkable period in the history of the Agency. Called the “Bob Gates of his generation,” Michael Morell is a top CIA officer who saw it all—the only person with President Bush on 9/11/01 and with President Obama on 5/1/11 when Usama Bin Laden was brought to justice.

Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now

By Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Fellow, Future of Diplomacy Project; Harper Collins, (March 2015)

In Heretic, Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes that a religious reformation is the only way to end the terrorism, sectarian warfare, and repression of women and minorities that each year claim thousands of lives throughout the Muslim world. She argues that the violent acts of Islamic extremists cannot be divorced from the religious doctrine that inspires them. Instead, she says, we must confront the fact that they are driven by a political ideology embedded in Islam itself.

“Whatever one may think of her solutions, Hirsi Ali should be commended for her unblinking determination to address the problem.”

—Andrew Anthony,
The Guardian