BOOK CHAPTERS
August 28, 2008
"Historic Barriers to Anglo-American Nuclear Cooperation"
By Andrew Brown, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom
Andrew Brown's chapter, "Historic Barriers to Anglo-American Nuclear Cooperation," has been published in the recent book US-UK Nuclear Cooperation After 50 Years. The book is a joint publication from CSIS and Chatham House London examining the impact of the 1958 Mutual Defense Agreement and its consequences.
Jacom Stephens
July 2008
The Incisive Fight: Recommendations for Improving Counterterrorism Intelligence
volume 618
By Eric Rosenbach, Executive Director for Research, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The intelligence community has evolved significantly since the failures of 9/11 and the inaccurate assessments on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Congressional action has resulted in multiple far-reaching reforms and tectonic organizational shifts. On the strategic level, however, counterterrorism intelligence policy has been muddled during the past eight years. The Bush administration, for example, called on the intelligence community to "bolster the growth of democracy." The next president should cast aside political ideology and build on reform efforts to empower top-notch leaders. Strong new leaders in the intelligence community must energize the National Counterterrorism Center and provide the president with comprehensive and policy-relevant intelligence analysis. The United States cannot eliminate the global terrorist threat alone—the next president must boost cooperation with liaison security services. Finally, the intelligence community must bolster its operational capacity to find and detain terrorists around the world.
June 2008
"The Yellow Rain Affair: Lessons from a Discredited Allegation"
By Matthew Meselson, Co-director, Harvard Sussex Program on Chemical and Biological Weapons and Julian Perry Robinson, Co-director, Harvard Sussex Program on Chemical and Biological Weapons
"U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig, in a speech in West Berlin in September 1981 and in a detailed report to the Congress the following March, charged Soviet-backed Laotian and Vietnamese forces with waging toxin warfare against Hmong resistance fighters and their villages in Laos and against Khmer Rouge soldiers and villages in Cambodia. The charges were repeated with additional details in a further report to the Congress and to the member states of the United Nations in November 1982 by Haig's successor, Secretary of State George Shultz.
The investigation on which the allegation was based, however, failed to employ reliable methods of witness interrogation or of forensic laboratory investigation; it was further marred by the dismissal and withholding of contrary evidence and a lack of independent review. When the evidence for toxin attacks or any other form of chemical/biological warfare (CBW) was subjected to more careful examination, it could not be confirmed or was discredited. In what became known as the "Yellow Rain" affair, these charges — that toxic substances called trichothecenes were used in CBW — were initially pressed vigorously by the U.S. government and, even when the allegations proved unsustainable, they were not withdrawn...."
AP
March 8, 2008
"Recent Progress and Remaining Challenges for Advanced Coal Technology in China"
volume 6
By Kelly Sims Gallagher, Director, Energy Technology Innovation Policy and Lifeng Zhao, Former Research Fellow, Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 2006-2008
In order to promote the research, development, demonstration and deployment of advanced coal technologies, the Chinese central government and local governments have formulated a series of industrial, fiscal, environmental policies and plans. These are outlined in this book chapter.
January 17, 2008
Ruthless Humanitarianism
By Doug Brooks and Matan Chorev, Research Assistant, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Over the past twenty years, Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) have become significant elements of national security arrangements, assuming many of the functions that have traditionally been undertaken by state armies. Given the centrality of control over the use of coercive force to the functioning and identity of the modern state, and to international order, these developments clearly are of great practical and conceptual interest.
This edited volume provides an interdisciplinary overview of PMSCs: what they are, why they have emerged in their current form, how they operate, their current and likely future military, political, social and economic impact, and the moral and legal constraints that do and should apply to their operation. The book focuses firstly upon normative issues raised by the development of PMSCs, and then upon state regulation and policy towards PMSCs, examining finally the impact of PMSCs on civil-military relations. It takes an innovative approach, bringing theory and empirical research into mutually illuminating contact. Includes contributions from experts in IR, political theory, international and corporate law, and economics, and also breaks important new ground by including philosophical discussions of PMSCs.
2008
"The Future of American Power"
By Joseph S. Nye, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations
"It is generally agreed that the United States is the leading power at the beginning of the twenty-first century, but there is less agreement on how long this will last. Some observers argue that American pre-eminence is simply the result of the collapse of the Soviet Union and that this 'unipolar moment' will be brief, while others argue that America's power is so great that it will last for much of the coming century...."
Department of Defense
January 2008
Defense Management Challenges in the Post-Bush Era
By Dr. Ashton B. Carter, Co-Director, Preventive Defense Project, Harvard & Stanford Universities
Dr. Ashton Carter discusses the resource management challenges facing American defense leaders in the coming decade.
December 30, 2007
"Revolution and Counter Revolution: The Israeli Supreme Court from the 1980's onward, 1980–2004"
By Ehud Eiran, Research Fellow, International Security Program
Ehud Eiran reviews the changes in the Israeli Supereme court since the 1980's and places them in the broader institutional, historical, and cultural contexts in this essay.
November 2007
"Peace Process"
By Boaz Atzili, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program
"A peace process is a series of persistent diplomatic and political initiatives to negotiate a resolution to a protracted conflict between political entities. The term was first used consistently during the 1970s to describe the efforts to negotiate peace agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Its use has spread since, both geographically and across social categories...."
October 2007
"Disposition of Excess Highly Enriched Uranium"
By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom and Anatoli Diakov
This chapter describes the progress of the Russian and U.S. HEU disposition programs and how they could be expanded and accelerated. It also provides a brief update on the progress of the international programs to clean out and dispose of civilian HEU. The quantities of HEU involved are much smaller than those in the weapons programs but civilian sites are typically much less secure than military ones. Cleaning them out may therefore contribute more to reducing the overall danger of nuclear theft.
