"While cyber and nuclear technologies are vastly different, the process by which society learns to cope with a highly disruptive technology shows instructive similarities. It took states about two decades to reach the first cooperative agreements in the nuclear era. If one dates the cyber-security problem not from the beginning of the Internet in the 1970s, but from the late 1990s, when burgeoning participation made the Internet the substrate for economic and military interdependence (and thus increased our vulnerability), cooperation is now at about the two-decade mark."

At a recent conference in France, a number of Europeans surprised their American guests by arguing that President Donald Trump might be good for Europe. With Trump returning to Europe for the G20 summit in Hamburg, it's worth asking whether they are right.

Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over a highly orchestrated forum for his Belt and Road Initiative, which will involve 65 countries containing some 4.5 billion people. Xi’s plan to integrate Eurasia through a trillion dollars of infrastructure investment is impressive, but will it succeed as a grand strategy?

A group of top-level American and Japanese academics and officials gathered for a Belfer Center conference in March to discuss the U.S.-Japan alliance and the rise of China.

Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and former Harvard Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye was honored  by the Center’s Cyber Security Project in April for his leadership and contributions to cybersecurity through the Belfer Center’s cybersecurity initiatives. Nye has announced his retirement at the end of the semester.

Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election, and its suspected hacking of French President Emmanuel Macron’s campaign servers, should surprise no one, given President Vladimir Putin’s (mis)understanding of soft power. Information warfare, while somewhat disruptive, has eroded, not boosted, Russia's attractiveness.

"The system the United States created has been called a liberal international order, because openness produces public goods available to all. But the label is confusing because it covers political-military affairs, economic relations, ecological relations and even promotion of liberal values. It remains to be seen to what degree these different aspects depend on each other and what the result will be if Trump unpacks the post-1945 package."

A sampling of articles in the Spring 2016 issue of the Belfer Center's journal International Security.

News from in and around the Belfer Center.

"It is still early in the Trump presidency, and we cannot be sure what might happen after, say, a major terrorist attack. So far, however, the courts, the Congress, and the states have checked and balanced the administration, as Madison intended. And the permanent civil servants in the executive departments add ballast."