Nuclear Issues

Belfer Center Director and former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter talks about pulling out of the Iran Deal, North Korea, and more on CNN New Day with Chris Cuomo.

Mahsa Rouhi compares and contrasts the situations with Iran and North Korea and warns of the consequences.

Amb. Nicholas Burns on North Korea's Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meeting today

Former American Diplomat and Professor at JFK School of Government at Harvard University, Nicholas Burns gives his insight on the relationship between North and South Korea following the historical summit of the two nations.

A full transcript of the speech given by Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island at the Harvard Kennedy School on April 23, 2018 at the Future of Diplomacy's seminar entitled "A Conversation with Senator Jack Reed on American National Security."

The stunning revelation this week that CIA Director Mike Pompeo met with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un over Easter weekend is a stark reminder that the pieces of the puzzle posed by a nuclear North Korea are moving rapidly. According to President Trump’s Wednesday morning tweet, “Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed…Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!”

Most national security experts have criticized Trump’s decision to meet face-to-face with the North Korean leader at the beginning, rather than the end, of a long diplomatic process, and are predicting that the meeting will be a failure. In contrast, I see the potential for a significant win for the U.S. While forecasts about the unknown future are inherently uncertain, I sense the possibility of what I call a “six-win solution.”

President Trump surprised almost everyone—probably not the least Kim Jong-un—when he agreed to meet the North Korean leader at the end of May (now maybe early June). By accepting Kim’s invitation, President Trump overturned decades of conventional wisdom on how to separate North Korea from its nuclear and other WMD programs. If Trump and Kim meet—as of now this is still a big “if,” although North Korea has now confirmed its willingness to meet directly—the summit could be an important ice breaker and open up a chance to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis and bring peace to the Korean peninsula. But success, however remote it may seem, will require new thinking and entail major risks. It will also require a plan.

Stephen M. Walt asks the following question: Is the real problem that Washington can't trust others, or rather that other states can't trust it? 

The Belfer Center's Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and Meghan O'Sullivan discuss the foreign policy challenges facing the Trump administration with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.