Articles

185 Items

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark A. Milley

DoD/Army Sgt. 1st Class Chuck Burden

Journal Article - Perspectives on Politics

No Right to Be Wrong: What Americans Think about Civil-Military Relations

An influential model of democratic civil-military relations insists that civilian politicians and officials, accountable to the public, have "the right to be wrong" about the use of force: they, not senior military officers, decide when force will be used and set military strategy. While polls have routinely asked about Americans' trust in the military, they have rarely probed deeply into Americans' views of civil-military relations. 

Biden HQ

CNN

Journal Article - Science

Was 'Science' on the Ballot?

| Feb. 26, 2021

On 7 November 2020, moments before Kamala Harris and Joe Biden began their victory speeches, giant screens flanking the stage proclaimed, "The people have chosen science." Yet, nearly 74 million Americans, almost half the voters, had cast their ballots for Donald Trump, thereby presumably not choosing science. Prominent scientists asserted that "science was on the ballot" and lamented that "a significant portion of America doesn't want science". But before despairing at the loss of trust in science, scholars and policymakers should be sure they are worrying about the right problem. 

Journal Article - Terrorism and Political Violence

Book Review: The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West

| 2021

David Kilcullen, a professor at the University of New South Wales, contributes to the debate of  whether contemporary great-power resurgence constitutes a second bi-polar competition by assessing resurging state and non-state competitors and the challenges they pose to the United Statesled world order. While the emerging security environment might not be a new Cold War, Kilcullen contends it may be more dangerous than in the past.

U.S. Navy Master-at-Arms Third Class Danielle Hinchliff, right, of Coastal Riverine Squadron 2, helps carry a mock wounded person

AP/Gerry Broome

Journal Article - Journal of Conflict Resolution

At War and at Home: The Consequences of US Women Combat Casualties

| 2020

What are the consequences of women dying in combat? The authors study how women fighting on the frontlines of the military affects public attitudes toward (1) military conflict and (2) women’s equality. We demonstrate through a series of survey experiments that women dying in combat does not reduce public support for war. However, women’s combat deaths do shape perceptions of women’s equality

Charles River and Harvard University skyline

Wikimedia CC/Marco Carrasco

Newspaper Article - Harvard Crimson

HKS Prof. Aldy Talks Clean Energy, Economic Policy at Belfer Center Webinar

    Author:
  • Isabella B. Cho
| Oct. 20, 2020

Harvard Kennedy School professor Joseph E. Aldy discussed how policymakers can learn from past models to maximize the impact of current American energy legislation at an October 19 webinar hosted by the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements.

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Does the Noncombatant Immunity Norm Have Stopping Power? A Debate

| Fall 2020

Scott Sagan and Benjamin Valentino, and Charli Carpenter and Alexander Montgomery continue the debate on the power of noncombatant immunity norms, discuss how scholars should approach the study of these norms, and emphasize their shared objective to determine how security norms can be bolstered rather than undermined.

Protesters raise white papers

AP/Kin Cheung

Journal Article - Journal of Democracy

The Future of Nonviolent Resistance

| July 2020

This article argues that the decreased success of nonviolent civil resistance was due not only to savvier state responses, but also to changes in the structure and capabilities of civil-resistance movements themselves. Perhaps counterintuitively, the coronavirus pandemic may have helped to address some of these underlying problems by driving movements to turn their focus back to relationship-building, grassroots organizing, strategy, and planning.

West George Street in Glasgow during coronavirus lockdown.

Wikimedia CC/Daniel Naczk

Magazine Article - Resources Magazine

The State of Global Climate Policy after the Delay of COP26

| May 15, 2020

Former U.S. lead climate negotiator Sue Biniaz shares her thoughts on the postponement of COP26 in this interview by Professor Robert Stavins. Stavins and Biniaz explore ways to reimagine future United Nations climate negotiations, unresolved concerns from COP25, and how the United States might approach rejoining the Paris Agreement.

teaser image

Newspaper Article

Foreign policy experts call for end to hate crimes against Asian American community

| Apr. 15, 2020

Recent hate crimes and violent assaults against people of Asian descent should sound an alarm for America. Within the past couple of weeks alone, ac acid attack against a woman in Brooklyn caused her to suffer severe burns, and a man in Texas has been charged with attempted murder after attacking an Asian American family. Such stories have become disturbingly frequent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the FBI has warned that this trend may continue.

We, the undersigned, are alarmed by the severity of such hate crimes and race-based harassment against people of Asian descent in the United States - assaults that endanger the safety, well-being, dignity and livelihoods of all those targeted.