Nuclear Issues

“The CIA, more than any other agency, [has been] instrumental in stopping terrorism and bringing terrorists to justice,” Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan said during a JFK Jr. Forum at Harvard Kennedy School in April.  “Will we make mistakes in the future? Probably. But the Agency is a wonderful organization and…I am frustrated with its image because it doesn’t comport with reality.”

The Belfer Center’s Iran Project and the Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) co-sponsored a luncheon panel on the Iranian nuclear negotiations and the scenarios for the potential breakdown of current international talks on Iran, entitled “And Then What? Imagining the Middle East if Nuclear Negotiations with Iran Fail.”

Belfer Center at IDEASpHERE 2014

Incisive questions and ambitious answers marked Harvard Kennedy School’s IDEASpHERE celebration in late spring. Belfer Center thinkers shared their big ideas in more than a dozen sessions, ranging from China's rise to nuclear weapons.

Below is a sampling of notable thoughts from those sessions. For more, including summaries and video highlights, see belfercenter.org/ideasphere2014.

Former Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel B. Poneman joined the Belfer Center in October as a senior fellow. Poneman, who served as deputy secretary from 2009 until early October of this year, was responsible for the full range of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy, including fossil and nuclear energy, renewables and energy efficiency, and international cooperation around the world.

In a standing-room-only event at Harvard Kennedy School in late September, former national security advisors from the United States and Israel highlighted the significance and the challenges of negotiating with Iran to prevent its development of nuclear weapons.

Thomas Donilon, national security advisor for the U.S. from 2010 to 2013, and Yaakov Amidror, national security advisor for Israel from 2011 to 2013, shared their views on the process of negotiating with Iran to reach an agreement on its current and future nuclear program.

In October, 2012, at the foot of a rocky hillside in eastern Kazakhstan, a group of American, Russian, and Kazakh nuclear scientists and engineers gathered for a ceremony marking the completion of a secret 17-year, $150 million operation to secure plutonium in the tunnels of Degelen Mountain—an abandoned site of Soviet underground nuclear testing.

In preparation for next year’s Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands, the Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) is rolling out a series of reports on strengthening international efforts to secure nuclear material around the world. Matthew Bunn and William Tobey, along with other staff and fellows at the Belfer Center, have also begun briefing officials from key states attending the summit on priority steps for reducing nuclear security risks.

The Spring 2013 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming activities, research, and analysis by members of the Center community on critical global issues. This edition highlights the Belfer Center’s deepening engagement with China.