News & Announcements

The Right Honourable Douglas Alexander offered his views on European security in a discussion moderated by FDP Executive Director Cathryn Cluver.

Putin and his government seek respect, stability from next U.S. administration, panel says.

As visitors step through the doors of the Kennedy Memorial Library for events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, they will find on display Picasso's 1963 Rape of the Sabine Women - on loan from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. The connection between Picasso's painting and what is widely accepted as the most dangerous moment in human history was brought to light for many by Malcolm Wiener, a member of the Belfer Center’s International Council and the person for whom Harvard Kennedy School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy was named.

Osama bin Laden gave them the perfect opening. Just before President Bush welcomed Russian President Vladimir V. Putin to the White House for last week's summit, a Pakistani newspaper quoted the Al Qaeda leader claiming to have "chemical and nuclear weapons" and "the right to use them."

President Bush has warned the world that Osama bin Laden is ''seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction.'' To meet this threat, the United States and Russia should take the lead in establishing an Alliance Against Megaterrorism. What should have been a crowning achievement of this week's summit was sadly a missed opportunity.

Mutual retaliation in the "spy wars" that broke out last month fueled what was already shaping up to become a new rhetorical Cold War.

Hyperbole about Russia as a new "threat" and "active proliferator," in the words of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, has puzzled some Russians and alarmed others. The critique of the United States by Sergei Ivanov - then the Russian national security adviser and now defense minister - at a gathering of security graybeards in Munich in February shocked American participants, including Mr. Rumsfeld. Competition in accentuating the negative about each other's actions and intentions revives an image of Russia and America as primary adversaries in international affairs.

Despite a decade of effort, the risks of loose nukes are larger today than they were when these efforts began. U.S. programs have had positive results, but declines in Russia's economy and in the government's ability to control anything--from money to nuclear materials--has had larger negative consequences. The good news is that Russians are ready to engage in more joint efforts to secure Russia's nuclear materials.