Reports & Papers
BCSIA: 1996-1997 ANNUAL REPORT
2. Director''s Foreword
A decade ago, the Director of the Center for Science and International Affairs wrote in his introduction to the CSIA Annual Report: "I believe that a Director''s statement should be brief. The work of the Center should speak for itself, as it does in the pages that follow." On this point, Joe Nye and I agree entirely.
This is the first Annual Report the Center has produced in five years. It is also the first to appear since the Center was reendowed, refurbished, and renewed as the Robert and Renée Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said of Harvard that "at its best, this University unites the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning." At its best, that is BCSIA. Where else could postdoctoral fellows, doctoral candidates, and students interested in nuclear weapons issues find Paul Doty (whose personal engagement in these topics spans more than five decades), Ash Carter (who led the Clinton administration''s Nuclear Posture Review), John Holdren (who was the driving force in the National Academy of Science''s more radical look at the future of nuclear weapons), and a dozen others for whom this has been a central focus for decades of serious research and action? Where else could one have regular access to a national asset like Harvey Brooks, who has been a significant participant in virtually every topic the Center seeks to examine? An identical point can be made about any number of other issues, including most recently global warming, energy policy, chemical and biological weapons, and the fate of the former Soviet Union.
The mission of BCSIA is to provide leadership in advancing policy-relevant knowledge about the most important challenges of international security and other critical international issues where science, technology, and public policy intersect. Each of the phrases in our mission statement is important to the Center.
The renewed BCSIA seeks to stretch beyond the previous activities of the Center in a number of distinctive directions.
First, we are assembling a critical mass of the most outstanding scholar-practitioners of international affairs, especially in areas where science, technology, and public policy meet. Lewis Branscomb and Ash Carter, John Holdren and Matt Meselson, Bob Blackwill, John Deutch, Steve Miller, Shai Feldman, Deborah Hurley, Rob Stavins, and a score of colleagues are becoming that critical mass. In the year ahead, we look forward to the appointment of a new professor of East Asian politics and public policy, two new professors of international relations, and two public service professors, as well as several new assistant professors and lecturers.
Second, we are both reinventing and revitalizing the Center''s research agenda: identifying threats and opportunities of the post-Cold War environment like "loose nukes" and megaterrorism; and initiating new efforts like our projects on Managing the Atom, Preventive Defense, and Ukrainian Security.
Third, Dean Joe Nye has designated the Center as the hub of the Kennedy School''s international activity, including its Degree Programs and Executive Programs. As chair of the International Security and Political Economy "cluster" in the School, the Director of BCSIA is responsible for bringing more coherence and interconnectedness to the curricular and teaching efforts throughout the School. Thus, Executive Programs for Generals and Admirals from the U.S. government, the Russian General Staff, and more recently the Chinese People''s Liberation Army; graduate Degree Programs that include McCloy Fellows from Germany, Wexner Fellows from Israel, and students from more than 60 nations; and research activity across the BCSIA agenda that should bolster and inform teaching throughout the School; joint ventures between the School and other parts of Harvard - these and many more activities will enrich and be enriched by BCSIA core programs.
At Harvard''s 350th birthday celebration in 1986, the question was asked: How has Harvard become "ancient and honorable" rather than just "old and tired?" The secret to Harvard''s success has been a continuing process of renewal as successive generations of institutional leaders stand on the shoulders of the giants who have preceded them, thereby stretching to new horizons.
The new BCSIA seeks to continue in this Harvard tradition.
-Graham T. Allison, Jr.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
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OverviewDirector''s Foreword
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