Blog Post
As we approach the end of our first academic year as the new BCSIA, the
Center has much for which to be thankful. In the past year, we celebrated
the reendowment and renaming of the Center; creation of the Harvey Brooks
Professorship; establishment of the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professorship of
International Affairs; the launching of Ash Carter''s and Bill Perry''s
Preventive Defense program; a Human Rights Initiative that will recognize
and reflect on the significance of the progress made in realizing
individuals'' human rights in the five decades since the UN Declaration;
publication of a dozen significant policy books including one by the
newly-promoted Assistant to President Yeltsin for National Security
Affairs, Andrei Kokoshin; and completion of four major studies on one of
the new themes of BCSIA: megaterrorism.
At the heart of the Center is a class of thirty-three extraordinary
research fellows recruited from the "best and brightest," not only in the
United States but around the world. These individuals come to the Centerfor a year to complete studies of their own; to participate in ongoing
studies; and to build intellectual capital for practice in the world of
science and international affairs. We are proud of each of this year''s
fellows, and this issue''s centerspread features four.
Each of the major programs of the Center has launched significant new
initiatives this year.
The International Security program has initiated:
The Preventive Defense Program led by Ash Carter and Bill Perry, a
collaboration of Harvard and Stanford. Key associates include Elizabeth
Sherwood (formerly Associate Director of the Center''s SDI Project), and
John Shalikashvili (former Chairman of the JCS).
A new sub-theme of the Center - megaterrorism - has produced a cluster
of books and monographs, including Executive Director Richard Falkenrath''s
new book on preparing to combat nuclear, biological, and chemical terrorist
attacks; former Deputy Attorney General Philip Heymann''s book analyzing
U.S. counterterrorism policies; Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg''s edited volume on the biological weapons threat; and an assessment of "Grand
Terrorism" led by Ash Carter and John Deutch.
The Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, under John
Holdren, has initiated:
The Managing the Atom project, which explores the intersections
between nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and the future of nuclear
decision-making in democratic societies. Researchers will make
recommendations on approaches to securing, monitoring, and reducing nuclear
stockpiles in the United States and the former Soviet Union; examine the
proliferation, financial, and environmental implications of alternative
future nuclear fuel cycles, and safeguards and security regimes; reconsider
U.S. nonproliferation and nuclear trade policies in the post-Cold War era;
and assess approaches to public participation in nuclear decision-making in
the United States and other democracies.
The Energy R&D Policy for a Greenhouse-Gas-Constrained World
project, which is identifying the gaps between the world''s current energy research and development programs and those that would be necessary to
provide the energy needed for prosperity in the next half-century without
an intolerable impact on the global climate. The project will then
identify, recommend, and promote a coherent set of innovative and
interlinked energy R&D initiatives to help bridge these gaps in key
countries around the world.
And has welcomed Sheila Jasanoff as a new Professor at the School,
where she will continue her work on the interactions of science,
technology, and democratic politics.
The Environment and Natural Resources program, under Professor
Robert Stavins and Henry Lee, is undertaking:
A multiyear economic investigation of the economic and regulatory
factors affecting the rates and direction of invention, innovation, and
diffusion of energy-efficiency technologies.
Multiple studies on responses to global climate change, including
the design and implementation of domestic and international tradable permit
systems; new concepts for joint implementation efforts with China, Brazil, Russia and India; the enforcement and monitoring of international
protocols; and the sequestration of carbon, either through forestation or
through technological means.
Expansion of the Global Environment Assessment Project to include
study of transboundary air pollution, global climate change, and the
differences and interactions between assessments in the northern and
southern hemispheres.
The Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project has undertaken:
The Moscow Mortgage Initiative that works directly with Mayor
Luzhkov of Moscow to help establish a functioning mortgage market for
middle-class Muscovites in 1998-99.
The Caspian Initiative that seeks to advance U.S. political,
economic, and security interests in the Caspian basin by offering specific
prescriptions for more effective American strategy and policy in the region.
As these initiatives suggest, the Center is making progress in pursuing its mission to advance policy-relevant knowledge about the most important challenges of international security and related questions where science, technology, and public
policy intersect.
Graham Allison