Research

The paper provides a detailed analysis of the contemporary Sino-Indian conventional ground and nuclear force balances and carefully reconstructs how mutual developments in these areas are perceived by both New Delhi and Beijing.

"The recent New York Times Magazinearticle on the 'mysteries' remaining about the bin Laden raid offers no clear conclusions. But it does usefully point out that there could be a difference between the Pakistanis being aware that bin Laden was living in Abbottabad, and not being informed of the impending attack against him."

"In the 1950's the CIA, developer of the U-2 spy plane, carried out reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union, starting from the Pakistani military base in Peshawar. The ISI, the intelligence service of the all-powerful Pakistani Army, was assigned to coordinate these flights with CIA personnel in Pakistan. Thus began the longstanding relationship between the CIA, a civilian intelligence service, and the ISI, a military intelligence service, a relationship that lasted all through the years...."

"Much of the ambiguity in Pakistani foreign policy stems from its inferiority complex vis-a-vis India. Though Pakistan is hardly a small country (pop. 188 million), it is dwarfed by is neighbor (pop. 1.22 billion) and has lost a series of wars with India since Partition, which in retrospect is regarded by many as having been a mistake. Pakistan lost Kashmir, whose Hindu maharajah turned the Muslim majority province over to India. The institutions of British India went to the Indians at Partition, and Pakistan had to seek out and build a new capital at Islamabad."

"The origins of what Carrie faces over Season 4—and which her successors as chief of station in Islamabad will continue to face in the future, were largely presented accurately in Charlie Wilson's War, a dramatic account of that war that the two of us developed and oversaw when we were at CIA."

"As we consider our incredible range of urgent international and defense affairs — challenges with our deepest Intelligence Gathering secrets revealed, China, Russia, North Korea, Syria, Iran — all while coordinating a military exit from Afghanistan, a question: How much does Presidential Leadership matter?"

"...[M]ore than a generation ago, when the American people — and some departments in Washington — were still getting used to the idea of an intelligence service in a democracy. The process was not helped by the revelations of the 1970's, including CIA involvement in assassination attempts against foreign leaders and its infiltration of student organizations in the U.S."

"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."

"...[T]here are many downsides to what has happened in Afghanistan. In my  view, we should have stopped hostilities in Afghanistan when bin Laden and his al-Qaeda followers escaped into Pakistan in late 2001. But it is now more than 11 years later and way past time to get out."