Nuclear Issues

Following the breakdown of February’s Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi, Belfer Center experts discussed the impact of the shortened summit. 

The Spring 2019 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features two major reports: A Vision for Nuclear Security, from the Project on Managing the Atom, and NATO in Crisis, a  70th anniversary report from former NATO Ambassadors Nicholas Burns and Douglas Lute. The newsletter also highlights Center Korea scholars' reactions to the shortened Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi, and some takeaways from nuclear experts who recently examined samples of Iranian nuclear-related documents spirited out of Iran by a clandestine Israeli intelligence operation.

And there's much more.

The authors analyze the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the recent back-to-back crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets and make policy recommendations for the regulation of increasingly complex technologies.

While personality has often played a role in high-stakes diplomatic negotiations in the past—for better or worse—experts say successful negotiations depend just as much on professionals who carefully prepare the groundwork. 

Stephen Walt discusses Donald Trump's genuine insights about America's international problems. He then analyzes what went wrong.

In the aftermath of the Hanoi Summit, the Belfer Center convened aHarvard Korea Working Group Speaker Series event to assess summit outcomes.

The breakdown of the second round of talks between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un highlights the limits of personal chemistry in diplomatic relations. To work towards a negotiated solution to the Korean Peninsula, the United States and North Korea will need to work out some real strategic agreements.

In the aftermath of the Hanoi summit, it is important to assess how U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will proceed to avoid a collapse of the denuclearization process as well as how Vietnam can reap long-term benefits for its international profile and tourism industry. It may be the case that the Hanoi summit was a failure, but a necessary one in the context of growing unrealistic expectations from both Washington and Pyongyang. Vietnam still has a lot to do after the summit to continue contributing to North Korea’s reform and denuclearization.

In spite of the vociferous reaction of the American press, Graham Allison argues, the "failed" U.S.-North Korea summit in Vietnam this past week may not be such a failure after all. To understand why, one has to look to history—and especially to similar denuclearization efforts led by Ronald Reagan.

Following the breakdown of  the Trump-Kim Summit in Hanoi, Belfer Center Korea experts Matthew Bunn, Nicholas Burns, Martin Malin, Joseph Nye, Gary Samore, Wendy Sherman, and Jon Wolfsthal react to the collapse of the talks and suggest steps the United States should take now.