News & Announcements

On 16 July in Helsinki, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will meet his American colleague Donald Trump. The leaders will discuss a number of complicated questions, but the summit will be a success, even if the government leaders cannot reach agreement - so thinks retired Brigadier General and Associate Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, Kevin Ryan. Ryan talked to "Eurasia Expert" about the significance of the meeting between the American and Russian leaders for relations between the two countries, the future of NATO, and explained how American space forces will differ from Russian or Chinese space forces.

Sophie Shevardnadze of RT interviews Rolf Mowatt-Larssen on the dangers of politicizing intelligence.

In this January 19 New Atlanticist blog post, Atlantic Council staff writer, by Ashish Kumar Sen, interviews Harvard Kennedy School professor and former US diplomat, R. Nicholas Burns. Burns says that Iran nuclear agreement is positive for the United States, but Iran will continue to be a problem in a violent Middle East.

What can the United States do to thwart the nuclear ambitions of its allies? Dr. Kogan analyzes past cases where the United States was able to leverage its alliance commitments to stop friendly states from going nuclear. He then asks what lessons these past nuclear negotiations hold for today.  In the coming decade, key U.S. allies in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia) and East Asia (South Korea, Japan) may consider reducing their reliance on U.S. security guarantees by acquiring independent nuclear deterrents.  In conversation with Project Director Kevin Ryan, Dr. Kogan discusses Washington's options in confronting these contemporary allies with nascent nuclear appetites.

Brigadier General Kevin Ryan (U.S. Army retired), has been appointed the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army for the State of Massachusetts.  Ryan is taking on the volunteer Civilian Aide role in addition to his full-time position as director of the Defense and Intelligence Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Dr. Ellis raises an interesting question: Does the pursuit of offensive cyber capabilities undermine domestic security? The conversation highlights a growing area of concern and ongoing debate.

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.