Diplomacy and International Politics

New sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council on September 11 in response to North Korea’s latest nuclear test are “not significant enough,” according to R. Nicholas Burns, an Atlantic Council board member who served as undersecretary of state for political affairs in the George W. Bush administration.

Sanctions must be part of a “patient long-term strategy” that includes deterrence, working closely with allies, and negotiations, said Burns, laying out the United States’ options for dealing with the North Korean crisis.  

With the successful implementation of the historic nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1, a new chapter has opened between Iran and the international community, including the United States. Nevertheless, the future path of bilateral relations between the United States and Iran is uncertain and many challenges exist as the two countries attempt to formulate new terms of engagement. What should U.S. policy be towards Iran after the nuclear agreement? Can the agree­ment open the door to effective collaboration on areas of mutual interest, especially given the rising security challenges and rapidly changing dynamics of the Middle East? Or, will strategic rivalries between Iran and the United States con­tinue to shape and impede cooperation?

The American Secretaries of State Project, directed by Eugene B. Kogan, a former Stanton Postdoctoral Fellow at the Belfer Center, will interview former U.S. secretaries of state about the most demanding and consequential negotiations they conducted while in the nation’s highest foreign policy office. Along with Albright, Secretaries George P. Shultz, James A. Baker III, and Henry A. Kissinger have shared their experiences. Secretaries Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Hillary Rodham Clinton have agreed to be part of this historic undertaking in the near future.