Summer 2015 Belfer Center Newsletter

The Summer 2015 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming Center activities, along with research and analysis of critical global issues by members of the Center community. This issue features Decoding the Iran Nuclear Deal, a booklet with facts, pros and cons developed by 12 Center experts and edited by Executive Director Gary Samore. The guide, which examines viewpoints, key questions, pending legislation, and essential facts about the deal, is intended for members of Congress and others interested in examining the agreement.

In this edition, we highlight the “American Secretaries of State Project,” an exciting initiative of the Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project and Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. Professors Nicholas Burns of Harvard Kennedy School, Robert Mnookin of Harvard Law School, and James Sebenius of Harvard Business School lead the project, which will interview all American secretaries of state about their experiences and insights into great power diplomacy.

In addition, this newsletter describes participation by the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom in an international symposium at the United Nations looking at fresh ideas on nonproliferation. The event, co-sponsored by the Center, took place during the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference in April. Another article features Dongsheng Wu, a new environmental sustainability fellow with the Belfer and Ash Centers, who is responsible for developing a greenhouse gas emissions policy for Shanxi, a region with the highest coal production  and energy intensity in China. Our Spotlight in this newsletter is on David Keith, Harvard Kennedy School professor who is investigating the pros and cons of using solar engineering in the fight against climate change. And we ask former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd about his study on the future of the. U.S.-China relationship.

In "Rethinking the Arab States and Their Future," we focus on a Middle East Initiative study group series organized this semester by Professor Michael C. Hudson to discuss the erosion of political legitimacy in states following the Arab Spring. And, “Global Leaders Share Expertise with Students” underscores the valuable contributions of four distinguished former officials who are Fisher Family Fellows with the Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project.

Nuclear Nonproliferation

• Decoding the Iran Nuclear Agreement for Leaders in Washington and Beyond
• Symposium Encourages Young Scholars, Fresh Ideas on Nuclear Nonproliferation

Leadership, Diplomacy, and Negotiations

• Secretaries of State Share Insights on Diplomacy
• Global Leaders Share Expertise with Students
• Tackling Issues from Intelligence and Wars to Cyber Governance and Campaign Funding

Climate and Energy

• Holdren Speaks, Acts on Climate Change
• Environmental Sustainability Fellow Has Key Role in China’s Emissions Reduction Plan
• Collaborative Workshop Will Inform Plans for U.S.-China Emissions Deal
• Spotlight: David Keith (on solar geoengineering)

Challenges:  China, Middle East

• Q&A with Kevin Rudd (on his new report, U.S.-China 21: The Future of U.S.-China Relations Under Xi Jinping
• Rethinking the Arab States and Their Future

Additional Features

• Remembering John Steinbruner
• Tributes to Lee Kuan Yew
• Director’s Note
• Hot Off the Presses
• International Security Journal Highlights
• Belfer in Brief

Summer 2015 Newsletter

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