Nuclear Issues

The Fall/Winter 2014/15 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 discussions at the Belfer Center about Iran and its nuclear program. Former U.S. National Security Advisor and Center Senior Fellow Thomas Donilon and former Israeli National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror added their voices to Center debate on this issue during a Harvard Kennedy School forum on a possible deal to prevent development of nuclear weapons in Iran.

In "Stopping ISIL," a number of Belfer Center security experts weigh in on what must be done in the next year to stop the spread and brutality of the Islamic State (ISIL). Graham Allison, Nicholas Burns, Chuck Freilich, Nawaf Obaid, Ariane Tabatabai, Payam Mohseni, David Petraeus, Gary Samore, and Barak Mendelsohn suggest solutions to this strategic challenge.

And much more...

The Spring 2014 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 and increasing collaboration with Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance around critical issues related to China. We announce former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as a new Belfer Center senior fellow who will lead efforts to explore possibilities and impacts of a new strategic China-U.S. relationship. Read about this and much more.

The Winter 2012-13 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 commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In addition to the background on those 13 days in 1962 when the world was on the brink of nuclear war, the Center focuses on the decision-making that averted a nuclear catastrophe and the lessons from that event for leaders of today. We include winners and winning entries from our “Best Cuban Missile Crisis Lessons” contest, co-sponsored with Foreign Policy magazine.

The Belfer Center's Graham Allison, Nicholas Burns, Ashraf Hegazy, Joseph S. Nye, and Stephen Walt consider the U.S.'s shifting foreign policy in the Middle East.

On November 8, the Belfer Center's Dubai Initiative and the Dubai School of Government will sponsor a conference titled The Middle East: Between Progress and Conflict. Speakers and panelists at the conference will provide a framework for analyzing the divergent trends at play in the Middle East through academic discussions and policy-making debates.

Belfer Center's faculty in the news.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement that his country has completed a uranium enrichment cycle was met with great fanfare in the country, and much worry around the world.

On March 31, 2005, the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, concluded that the "Intelligence Community was dead wrong in almost all of its pre-war judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." Co-chaired by Laurence H. Silberman and Charles S. Robb, the WMD Commission presented its findings to President Bush after a year of intense research and interviews.

While United Nations reform efforts have been at the forefront of the news in recent months, reform activity has been underway within the U.N. for several years. The Belfer Center has been contributing its expertise to the reform debate on several fronts.

On April 5, the Belfer Center, together with the United Nations Foundation and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, convened a group of top nuclear arms control experts and leaders at the Kennedy School for a roundtable discussion to formulate recommendations on how the United Nations might take a renewed leadership role in nuclear nonproliferation. The session was held at the request of a high-level panel convened by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to propose measures to counter threats to global peace and security.