Nuclear Issues

As visitors step through the doors of the Kennedy Memorial Library for events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, they will find on display Picasso's 1963 Rape of the Sabine Women - on loan from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. The connection between Picasso's painting and what is widely accepted as the most dangerous moment in human history was brought to light for many by Malcolm Wiener, a member of the Belfer Center’s International Council and the person for whom Harvard Kennedy School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy was named.

On the 50^th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center and Foreign PolicyMagazine invited policymakers, scholars, students, and members of the public to propose 300-word lessons for today’s leaders from the 13 days in 1962 when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. Today, the Belfer Center and Foreign Policy are pleased to announce the winners of the Cuban Missile Crisis lessons contest.

Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs today launches a new website to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Designed to help policymakers, students, and interested citizens draw lessons from these critical events half a century ago, www.cubanmissilecrisis.org not only provides background on the crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in October 1962 but also offers tools to understand how it can inform contemporary policy.

Nicholas Burns recounts one of the most important events in American history—the beginning of the end of the Cold War, 20 years ago this week—and pays tribute to President George H.W. Bush's notable foreign policy achievements during his presidency. As the Republican primaries begin, Burns encourages voters to look critically at the foreign policy credibility of their candidates and who is best prepared to lead us through the thickets of the most complex foreign policy landscape we have ever encountered.

"Many Russian futures are possible. At one extreme, some view Russia as an industrialized banana republic whose corrupt institutions and insurmountable demographic and health problems make decline inevitable. Others argue that reform and modernization will enable Russia to surmount its problems, and that its leadership is headed in this direction."

Kevin Ryan is director of the U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism.

"In an effort to address this [nuclear terrorism] threat, the Belfer Center has teamed with other United States and Russian partners to form the U.S.-Russia Initiative to Prevent Nuclear Terrorism. The goal of the Initiative is to contribute to improved joint U.S.-Russian assessment of the threat of nuclear terrorism and concepts, strategy, and actions to prevent a successful nuclear attack by terrorists."

"In July, 2009, President Obama announced the first Global Nuclear Summit to 'develop steps that can be taken together to secure vulnerable materials, combat nuclear smuggling and deter, detect, and disrupt attempts at nuclear terrorism.' ... Because the goals and objectives of the summit mirror a long-time focus and effort of the Belfer Center, it is not surprising that a number of current and former Center experts are involved in various aspects of summit planning and nuclear terrorism prevention efforts."

Vipin Narang, a research fellow with International Security Program and Project on Managing the Atom, discusses nuclear security and terrorism.

Article in The Nonproliferation Review