Nuclear Issues

Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian recounts his 544 days in an Iranian prison during a talk with R. Nicholas Burns of the Harvard Kennedy School.

A interview conducted by The Fletcher School Forum with Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

In his latest article for Metro UN, the Belfer Center's Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship Senior Fellow Karl Kaiser analyzes the European view of the Trump Administration's withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal.

Over the past two decades, the United States has increasingly turned to targeted sanctions and export restrictions, such as those imposed against Iran and North Korea, in order to curb the spread of weapons of mass destruction. One vexing problem, however, is how to contend with jurisdictional hurdles when the violations occur overseas, in countries that are unable or unwilling to assist US enforcement efforts. To solve this problem, US prosecutors are turning to strategies with significant extraterritorial implications—that is, exercising legal authority beyond national borders. One such tool is to use civil legal procedures to seize assets linked to sanctions or export-control violations in jurisdictions that lack cooperative arrangements with US enforcement agencies. While this may be an attractive strategy to bolster enforcement efforts against overseas illicit procurement, using such tools is not without consequence. This article explores the political, legal, and technical implications of enforcing extraterritorial controls against overseas non-state actors by exploring the recent uses of civil-asset forfeiture against Iranian and North Korean procurement networks.

Before President Trump announces his decision on the Iran Deal, Former US Ambassador to NATO Nick Burns and Former Senior Policy Advisor for Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Jake Sullivan join Andrea Mitchell to discuss what this decision could mean for foreign policy.

Several Harvard social science professors criticized President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, saying it will hurt America’s global credibility and could speed Iran’s progress toward obtaining a nuclear weapon.