Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The Robert and Renée Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (also known as the Belfer Center) is a permanent research center located within the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Showing that the research is clearly in support of US militarism and regime changes, the center is led by Director Ash Carter, former US Secretary of Defense and Co-Director Eric Rosenbach, former Assistant Secretary of Defense. John Deutch, former director of the CIA, is on the board.
Own words
The Center has a dual mission: (1) to provide leadership in advancing policy-relevant knowledge about the most important challenges of international security and other critical issues where science, technology, environmental policy, and international affairs intersect; and (2) to prepare future generations of leaders for these arenas.[1]
The heart of the Belfer Center is its resident research community of more than 150 scholars, including Harvard faculty, researchers, practitioners, and each year a new, international group of research fellows. Through publications and policy discussions, workshops, seminars, and conferences, the Center promotes innovative solutions to significant national and international challenges.
The Belfer Center’s impact is also clearly seen through the service of its alumni who hold influential positions in government, academia, non-governmental organizations, and private establishments around the world.
Impact
The "Day After" exercise in 2007, organized by the Center’s former Preventive Defense Project, co-directed by Ashton B. Carter, stirred imagination at the highest levels in government and spurred the United States to undertake detailed planning measures in the event of a nuclear attack.[2]
Through research and analysis at the Center and implementation of policies by Center alumni in government, Belfer Center nuclear experts have played a major role in reducing the number of countries with nuclear weapons from 52 in 1991 to 25 today.
Senators Sam Nunn and Dick Lugar credit the Belfer Center as the incubator of Nunn-Lugar legislation that took away nuclear weapons and materials in the former Soviet Union following its dissolution in 1991. The Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (Nunn-Lugar Act) is one of the most significant Congressional initiatives in national security since World War II.
Faculty from the Science, Technology, and Public Policy and Environment and Natural Resources Program have long been among the nation's foremost leaders on the subject of climate change policy. Their research and analysis on policy issues related to science, technology (including cyber), and climate/environment.
Programs, Projects and Special Initiatives
The center is organized into subgroups with specific areas of focus:
- International Security (ISP) addresses the most important challenges to U.S. national security and international security in the quarter century ahead. As the first issue of the journal International Security stated in 1976, "we define international security broadly to include the full array of factors that have a direct bearing on the structure of the international system and the sovereignty of its members, with particular emphasis on the use, threat, and control of force."
Program researchers analyze security issues rigorously, draw prescriptive conclusions, and communicate their recommendations directly to makers of public policy and shapers of public opinion.
- The Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP) is at the center of the Harvard Kennedy School's research and outreach on public policy that affects global environmental quality and natural resources management.
- The Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program (STPP) applies methods drawn from technology assessment, political science, economics, management, and law to study problems where science, technology, and policy intersect. Our goal is to develop and promote policies that expand the contribution of science and technology to human welfare.
- The Diplomacy and International Politics Program comprises the Belfer Center’s signature projects on diplomacy and regional politics, including the Future of Diplomacy Project, the Middle East Initiative, the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship, and – in conjunction with the Harvard Law and Harvard Business Schools – the Secretaries of State Project.
- The Harvard Kennedy School Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship aims to strengthen the University’s capacities for teaching, research, and policy on the relationship between the United States and Europe. The program is designed to deepen a relationship which has — for over 70 years— served as an anchor of global order.{..} In doing so, we hope to prepare a new generation of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.
- The Intelligence Project seeks to build a new generation of intelligence practitioners prepared to serve in a rapidly changing world and to help future policymakers and intelligence consumers understand how best to interact with intelligence to gain a decision advantage.[3]
- The Arctic Initiative. As the ice retreats the Northwest Passage opens up, leading to new geopolitical challenges as Russia, the United States, China, and other actors jostle for influence.The Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative seeks to develop new insights and collaborations that bring together science, technology, and policy to address the environmental, economic and social challenges facing the Arctic.
- Nuclear Security Matters provides accessible analysis from the world’s leading experts on nuclear security and nuclear terrorism.
- Defending Digital Democracy. Led by Eric Rosenbach, the Defending Digital Democracy Project aims to develop strategies, tools, and technology to protect democratic processes and systems from cyber and information attack. Convening civic, technology, and media leaders to develop best practices that can shield our public discourse from adversarial information operations.[4]
- The Geopolitics of Energy Project explores the intersection of energy, security, and international politics. [5]
- The Homeland Security Project focuses on resiliency, border security, and the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to address strategic questions regarding a massive and diverse policy enterprise that touches the life of every American.[6]
- The Defense Project. Through the speaker series, seminars, and research, the Defense Project aims to highlight the dynamics of the relationship between civilian leaders and the uniformed military in the US defense establishment and increasing understanding between the two sets of actors.[7]
- The Elbe Group. The members of the Elbe Group are Russian and US senior retired military and intelligence flag officers, all of whom have strong connections back into their governments. The purpose of the “Elbe Group” is to maintain an open and continuous channel of communication on sensitive issues of US-Russian relations.[8]
- American Secretaries of State. nterviewing all former U.S. Secretaries of State to examine the most consequential negotiations they conducted while serving in the nation’s highest foreign policy office.
- China Cyber Policy Initiative.Collect and share data to inform the global debate over Beijing’s cyber capabilities, practices, and intentions. Publish clear and concise policy-relevant recommendations on Chinese cyber security issues.[9]
- Thucydides's Trap. When a rising power threatens to displace a ruling one, the most likely outcome is war. A perilous trap but uncertain outcome. Today, an irresistible rising China is on course to collide with an immovable America. The likely result of this competition was identified by the great historian Thucydides, who wrote: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.”
References
- ↑ https://www.belfercenter.org/about
- ↑ https://www.belfercenter.org/about/overview/policy-impact
- ↑ https://www.belfercenter.org/project/intelligence-project
- ↑ https://www.belfercenter.org/project/defending-digital-democracy
- ↑ https://www.belfercenter.org/project/geopolitics-energy-project
- ↑ https://www.belfercenter.org/project/homeland-security-project
- ↑ https://www.belfercenter.org/project/defense-project
- ↑ https://www.belfercenter.org/elbe-group/overview-elbe-group
- ↑ https://www.belfercenter.org/project/china-cyber-policy-initiative
