11 Items

Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Kandahar, southwest Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021.

AP Photo/Sidiqullah Khan

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

What Does the Taliban Takeover Mean for Afghanistan and the Region?

With the swift Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, we asked Belfer Center experts for their insights on what this could mean for the region – and what actions concerned countries, including the U.S., might take now. 

Photo of President Joe Biden speaking during a joint news conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in the East Room of the White House, Friday, May 21, 2021, in Washington.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Analysis & Opinions - Foreign Affairs

A Grand Bargain With North Korea

| July 29, 2021

Change is underway on the Korean Peninsula. At the Eighth Korean Workers’ Party Congress in January, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un orchestrated a decisive shift in the country’s bedrock economic and military policies. He moved away from his father’s “Military First” principle (Songun), which gave precedence to the Korea People’s Armed Forces, and supplanted it with an ideology of “People and Masses First” (Inmin Daejung Jaeil). This reorganization of North Korea’s system of governance empowers the ruling party at the expense of the KPAF, supporting Kim’s perpetual quest for power consolidation. More important, it sets the stage for efforts to resuscitate North Korea’s dying economy.

 

 

 

 

Photo of U.S. Gen. Vincent Brooks commander of the United Nations Command, U.S. Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command, speaks during an opening ceremony for the new headquarters of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Friday, June 29, 2018.

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool)

Magazine Article

'This Is a Window of Opportunity.' Ret. General Vincent K. Brooks on Why Things Might Be Moving Again With North Korea

| June 24, 2021

Few know the intricacies of the North Korean problem better than General Vincent K. Brooks, who retired from active duty in January 2019 as a four-star general in command of over 600,000 Koreans and Americans comprising the U.S. Forces Korea, U.N. Command and ROK-U.S. Combined Forces. He also previously served as commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific.

Now a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, General Brooks spoke to TIME about opportunities for a breakthrough with North Korea during the Biden Administration.

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

An Inflection Point for U.S.-Led Forces in Afghanistan

American troops and their allies have been conducting counter-terror operations and working to uphold the security of Afghanistan from Taliban extremists since shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. A deal negotiated between the Taliban and the Trump administration in February 2020 called on Western nations to withdraw all their forces by May 1 of this year. This week, President Biden announced that U.S. troops will complete their exit from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021. We reached out to several Belfer Center experts for their thoughts.  

 

Photo of President Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and others walk in Lafayette Park for a photo outside St. John's Church across from the White House Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. 

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Analysis & Opinions - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Dismay and Disappointment—A Breach of Sacred Trust

| June 04, 2020

"The recent turns of events in the United States, in cities across our great country, have caused within me feelings of dismay and disappointment," writes Gen. (ret.) Vincent K. Brooks.

"As an African American man, the feelings of inadequate and unfulfilled justice that I have felt for too many years of my life come again to the fore. And, as a retired career military officer from the family of a retired career military officer, I see again the threat of the use of the active duty military force on the streets of America, and I see the manipulation of the image of the military by our President. Dismay and disappointment."

South Korea's Late “Response”…  What is the 'Preparation' Problem? screenshot

VOA

Analysis & Opinions - VOA

South Korea's Late “Response”… What is the 'Preparation' Problem? | 한국 군 늦은 ‘대응’…‘대비태세’ 문제는?

| May 16, 2020

Gen. (ret) Vincent Brooks was interviewed by Voice of America - Korea about gunfire in the DMZ coming from North Korea towards a South Korean guard post and the 30 minutes it took South Korea to respond.

In this Sept. 18, 2016 photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guard commanders in Tehran, Iran.

Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

Analysis & Opinions - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Impacts of the U.S. Killing of Qassem Soleimani

Belfer Center experts weigh in on potential impacts of the U.S. killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.