Analysis & Opinions

8458 Items

International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean

International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean

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

Russia’s Arctic Shelf Bid and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, Explained

| Mar. 02, 2023

On February 6, 2023, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) issued recommendations with regard to the Russian submission in respect of the Arctic Ocean. Russia subsequently accepted the Commission’s recommendations, bringing its two-decade bid to extend its continental shelf close to an end. This development sends an important positive signal in times of unprecedented political disturbance in the Arctic region.

airport's single runway jutting out into the sea

AP/Wally Santana, File

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

Popping China's Balloon

| Mar. 02, 2023

Joseph Nye argues that if the Unites States, Japan, and Europe coordinate their policies, they will still represent the largest part of the world economy, and they will retain the capacity to organize a rules-based international order that can help shape Chinese behavior. These longstanding alliances are the key to managing China's rise.

Air-to-air with a Tupolev Tu-160

Ministry of Defence/Vadim Savitsky via Wikimedia Commons

Analysis & Opinions - The National Interest

Things Get Ugly if Russia Pulls the Nuclear Trigger in Ukraine

| Feb. 25, 2023

Not long ago, one of my students asked: “So, if my phone tells me the Russians have used nuclear weapons in Ukraine, should I do anything different here?” In other words: should I head for the hills?

My answer is “no.” The U.S. and Russian governments know full well that lobbing nuclear weapons at each other would be suicidal—each has enough powerful, survivable nuclear weapons to obliterate the other as a functioning society. No one is going to march down that road on purpose.

But it’s a nervous “no,” because the key lesson of the crises of the last several decades is that there is a fog of crisis, just as there is a fog of war, and things can happen that no leader originally intended. And in this case, thinking about how the United States might respond to Russian nuclear use makes clear just how rapidly things could get very dicey.

A picture of a man speaking

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

The Crusade to Ban ESG Makes No Sense

| Feb. 24, 2023

Efforts to prohibit financial institutions from considering environmental, social, and governance criteria reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of free-market capitalism on the part of its self-proclaimed defenders. If private investors and companies want to pursue ESG goals, it is not politicians' place to interfere.

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

Natasha Yefimova-Trilling – On the War and Its Impact in Russia

| Feb. 24, 2023

Belfer Communications Fellow Ada Ezeokoli interviewed Yefimova-Trilling on her perspectives regarding the Russian-Ukraine conflict one year on, and her thoughts on the year to come.