3 Items

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Marisa Porges' Journey from Naval Flight Officer to Counterterror Expert

    Author:
  • Wesley Nord
| Summer 2013

"Belfer Center Fellow Marisa Porges' career has already spanned the worlds of academia and policymaking, the government and the military. As an undergraduate at Harvard, Porges earned honors with a degree in geophysics and, during senior year, commanded her Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps unit. After graduation, she commissioned as a naval flight officer in the U.S. Navy and managed the weapons systems aboard EA-6B Prowlers, a carrier-based electronic warfare jet.... [now] as a doctoral candidate in the Department of War Studies at King's College London and a research fellow with the Belfer Center's International Security Program, she now combines scholarship and practice."

Analysis & Opinions - Philadelphia Inquirer

Nation's Challenge: Terrorist Next Door

| April 21, 2013

"Active support from and cooperation with American Muslims will be one of the most effective ways to thwart future terrorist attacks. As Saudi counterterrorism officials continually remind me, the friends and family of potential jihadists are the best form of defense against radicalization. This approach works in America, too."

Mar. 23, 2011: Afghan detainees are seen through mesh wire fence inside the Parwan detention facility near Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. Oversight of the main U.S. detention center in Afghanistan has been transfered to the Afghan government.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - The New York Times

Dead Men Share No Secrets

| September 25, 2012

"But this one-sided approach — always opting to kill instead of capture — is a major weakness of America's current approach to counterterrorism. It deprives us of significant amounts of intelligence about what Al Qaeda is thinking and planning, and information that could help find other senior terrorists. After all, it was intelligence from a detainee that helped American forces track down Bin Laden."