Spring 2017 Belfer Center Newsletter

We announce in this Spring 2017 issue of our newsletter that long-time Belfer Center Director Graham Allison will turn over the reins of the Center in July to former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and his new Co-Director Eric Rosenbach, both of whom are Center alums. Carter will return to the Kennedy School as the Belfer Professor of Technology and Global Affairs and Allison will remain actively involved at the Center through his teaching, researching, and writing.

Also in this issue, we are very pleased to welcome (and in some cases, welcome back) several high-ranking officials and former representatives who served during the Obama administration. Among those joining the Center following their government service: John P. Holdren (Obama Science Advisor), Ernest Moniz (Secretary of Energy), James Clapper (National Intelligence Director), and Laura Holgate (Ambassador and U.S. Representative to UN-Vienna and IAEA). In addition, we are happy to have as new senior or visiting fellows a number of additional former high-ranking public servants. And we are pleased that several Center and School alumni are serving the nation during the current administration.

We are proud, also, to call attention to a sampling of Belfer Center alumni serving in government, academia, and international organizations around the world. Among these are Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Brazil’s Special Secretary for Strategic Affairs Hussein Kalout.

Our Spotlight in this issue is on Laura Holgate, nuclear/counterproliferation expert and most recently Ambassador and U.S. Representative to UN-Vienna and IAEA. Holgate began her career at the Belfer Center in 1990 and has returned as a non-resident senior fellow. Our Q&A in this issue focuses on President Trump’s immigration executive orders. We offer arguments in favor (by senior fellow Ayaan Hirsi-Ali) and against (by senior fellow Farah Pandith). 

With the increasing focus on cybersecurity and election-related hacking, this issue offers excerpts from a Cyber Security Project event, titled “Russian Cyber Operations 2017,” and an article on election hacking written by several members of the Center’s Cyber Security Project team: “Elections=Critical Infrastructure.”

Our Applied History Project was honored to welcome Harvard President Drew Faust to a recent event where she gave her perspective on the significance of applying history to current situations global and local. We are pleased, too, to introduce our new Russia Matters website and our new Project on Saudi and Gulf Security as well as an expansion of our Iran Project.

Research fellows are an essential component of the Belfer Center life and work and in this issue we feature Calder Walton, Kate Cronin-Furman, and Morgan Kaplan.

See below for these articles and more.

Passing the Belfer Baton

• Allison Hands Belfer Baton to Ash Carter and Eric Rosenbach
• From the Director: Graham Allison on upcoming transitions and new members of the Center

Belfer Community - Serving the Nation In and Out of Government

• Advancing a More Secure and Sustainable World
• Alumni Govern, Educate, Analyze Around the World

New Initiatives – Middle East Stability, Facts about Russia

• Gift Expands Iran Project’s Cutting-Edge Research
• Center Establishes Project on Saudi and Gulf Security
• New Russia Matters Website Highlights Facts, Dispels Myths

Cybersecurity Policy and Electoral Hacking

• Russian Cyber Operations 2017
• Elections=Critical Infrastructure

Immigration, Terrorism, and Homeland Security

• Q&A on Immigration and Terrorism: Farah Pandith and Ayaan Hirsi-Ali offer differing views on the Trump administration policies on immigration and travel

• Homeland Security Project Focuses on Immigration and Borders, Threats and Resiliency

Lessons from History

• Harvard President Faust Links History and Leadership
• Thucydides’s Trap: Graham Allison’s forthcoming book on U.S.-China challenges
• Calder Walton: History is More Interesting Than ‘007’

International Relations and Security

• Spotlight on Laura Holgate: Countering Proliferation, Advancing Center’s Mission
• Kate Cronin-Furman: Holding Mass Atrocity Offenders Accountable
• Looking at Insurgent Groups and How They Use International Diplomacy to Gain Support
• Maugeri: A New Prediction on Global Oil Prices

Additional Features

• Hot Off the Presses
• International Security Journal Highlights
• Belfer in Brief: Encouraging Invention and Discovery in China; Global Commission to Develop Cyberspace Security Norms

Spring 2017 Newsletter

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