Asia & the Pacific

77 Items

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right, inspects the preparation of the launch of a Hwasong-14 ICBM in North Korea on July 4, 2017.

AP Photo

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Defending the United States: Revisiting National Missile Defense against North Korea

| Winter 2021/22

The costly Ground-based Midcourse Defense system remains unproven and unreliable in deterring North Korea’s threat to use intercontinental ballistic missiles. An airborne boost-phase intercept system may offer an alternative defense against North Korea without threatening Russian or Chinese deterrents.

Pakistan's battlefield nuclear weapons are to be used at the India-Pakistan border much earlier in an conflict.

NUKEMAP Image

Journal Article - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Destroying Pakistan to Deter India? The Problem with Pakistan's Battlefield Nukes

| July 2014

At first glance, the main advantage of Pakistan's new battlefield nuclear weapon—known as the Nasr missile—would appear to be its ability to slowdown and stop an armored attack by the Indian Army inside Pakistan, before it reaches vital cities. But deeper examination reveals that deploying this particular weapon on the battlefield against an advancing Indian armored column would cause substantial deaths and injuries to Pakistani citizens, rendering its purpose moot.

March 8, 2012: Norwich University student Adam Marenna, of Belair, Md.  Deep in the bowels of a building on the campus of the nation's oldest private military academy, students from across the globe are being taught to fight the war of the future.

AP Photo/Toby Talbot

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

The Meaning of the Cyber Revolution: Perils to Theory and Statecraft

| Fall 2013

While decisionmakers warn about the cyber threat constantly, there is little systematic analysis of the issue from an international security studies perspective. Cyberweapons are expanding the range of possible harm between the concepts of war and peace, and give rise to enormous defense complications and dangers to strategic stability. It is detrimental to the intellectual progress and policy relevance of the security studies field to continue to avoid the cyber revolution's central questions.

Analysis & Opinions - The Diplomat

China's No-First-Use Policy Promotes Nuclear Disarmament

| May 22, 2013

"If China abandons its no-first-use nuclear pledge, which has guided China's nuclear strategy since  its first nuclear test in 1964, it would severely undermine the global disarmament process, potentially preventing the U.S. and Russian from further reducing their nuclear arsenals and even encouraging the U.S. to expand its nuclear forces. Is China really changing its nuclear policy?"

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Yvonne Yew Offers Insight into Crucial Asian Security Issues

    Author:
  • Ramiro Gonzalez Lorca
| Summer 2013

"Researching Asian security issues has never been more topical," Yvonne Yew said in discussing her work at the Belfer Center. Despite Asia's economic growth, she said, "simmering tensions, territorial disputes, nuclear proliferation concerns, and military skirmishes serve to potentially undermine the region's peace and prosperity. As a former Singaporean diplomat and representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yew is in a unique position to view security issues spurred by the momentous and ongoing rise of Asia."

Report - Center for Strategic and International Studies

The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Anchoring Stability in Asia

| August 2012

The following report presents a consensus view of the members of a bipartisan study group on the U.S.-Japan alliance. The report specifically addresses energy, economics and global trade, relations with neighbors, and security-related issues. Within these areas, the study group offers policy recommendations for Japan and the United States, which span near- and long-term time frames. These recommendations are intended to bolster the alliance as a force for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton brief reporters about the Nuclear Posture Review Report at the Pentagon, Apri. 6, 2010.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - National Review Online

Nuclear Posturing

| April 7, 2010

"...[T]he NPR is very clear on carrots — including a long-overdue commitment to reducing the centrality of nuclear weapons in U.S. national-security strategy — but lacks any corresponding sticks. The Posture Review says that the United States will enhance its conventional capabilities as a deterrent. But what does that mean? How, exactly, would those conventional capabilities (which are going to cost a lot more than nuclear weapons) deter rogue states?"

This photo provided by Iranian state news agency Fars purports to show an Iranian Sajjil-2 surface-to-surface missile launching from a site in Semnan, Iran, May 20, 2009. The new advanced missile has a range of about 1,200 miles.

AP Photo

Analysis & Opinions - The Washington Post

Defense For a Real Threat

| July 06, 2009

"The East-West Institute released a study in late May by U.S. and Russian "experts" on the Iranian missile threat that concluded the threat "is not imminent and that in any event the system currently proposed would not be effective against it." The next day, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says, Iran apparently tested a multistage, solid-propellant missile with a range of 1,200 to 1,500 miles, putting much of Europe within range."