Intelligence Project

As U.S. and Soviet forces converged in Germany in the final days of WWII, both armies met at the River Elbe near Torgau. That meeting of comrades, united in the face of common threats, is the inspiration for the Belfer Center’s “Elbe Group,” whose purpose is to maintain an open and continuous channel of communication on sensitive issues of U.S.-Russian relations. In late March, the Elbe Group met in Jerusalem for its eighth meeting since its founding in 2010.

Kevin Ryan, the Belfer Center’s former executive director for research, has been named director of the Center’s Defense and Intelligence Project. The position gives Ryan lead responsibility for new initiatives focused on defense and intelligence. He will also continue to lead the Elbe Group as part of the Preventing Nuclear Terrorism project and will remain a member of the Belfer Center Board of Directors.

Why do small states resist when the United States threatens them? Pfundstein describes the difference between a compellent threats, which is intended to convince a target state to change its behavior, and a deterrent threat, which is intended to prevent an adversary from taking some future action. In her research, Pfundstein evaluates why weak states choose to resist when the United States issues a compellent threat against them. She argues that the use of force has become so cheap for the United States that targets are not convinced it has the motivation to stick around long enough to defeat them after the threat of force fails. Pfundstein also considers U.S. drone policy.

Podcasts and Recordings highlight the research of Belfer Center fellows, faculty, and guest speakers on defense and intelligence issues.

For more information, contact the interviewee or the Director of Defense and Intelligence Projects, BG (ret) Kevin Ryan