South Asia

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) doctoral student Daniel Velez Lopez is researching air pollution in Mexico and whether the country is willing to pay the costs to reduce it. HKS student Jennifer Kao is interviewing academics, investors, and government officials working to generate and commercialize clean energy innovations in the United Kingdom.

This section of the Belfer Center newsletter includes highlights from the Fall 2011 edition of the International Security journal.

The Winter 2010/11 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming activities, research, and analysis by members of the Center community on critical global issues. This issue highlights a major Belfer Center conference on technology and governance, the Center's involvement in the nuclear threat documentary Countdown to Zero, and a celebration of Belfer Center founder Paul Doty.

When the Academy Award-winning producer of An Inconvenient Truth,Lawrence Bender, wanted to create a new nuclear proliferation film, he turned to leading experts at the Belfer Center.

In this Q&A, we asked Belfer Center alumni Gary Samore and Laura Holgate to comment on the planning and successes of the Nuclear Security Summit, which they were responsible for organizing. The Summit that brought 46 global leaders to Washington, D.C. in April was a major step by President Obama to "ensure that terrorists never acquire a nuclear weapon." Samore, coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, proliferation, and terrorism, and Holgate, senior director for weapons of mass destruction terrorism and threat reduction, are alumni of the Belfer Center's International Security Program.

Belfer Center researchers Ananth Chikkatur and Ambuj Sagar, both with the Energy Technology Innovation Project (ETIP), have been studying the Indian coal-power sector over the past two years, with the aim of developing better technology policies and strategies to meet domestic energy needs while addressing global climate change.

In April, the Belfer Center International Council met to address a number of the central issues of international affairs and science affecting the world today.

The latest publications released by Belfer Center faculty and fellows.

Preventive Defense Project Co-Director Ashton Carter appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in November to comment on the implications of the July 18, 2005 Joint Statement between the United States and India committing both countries to cooperate in the area of civil nuclear power. India, one of the countries never to have signed the NPT, tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998 and is barred by U.S. law and international convention from engaging in any nuclear commerce with the United States. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's NPT Policy Advisory Group on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which Carter co-chairs, was asked to review the Bush-Singh deal and recommend to the Congress whether to support or reject the Bush initiative.