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March 5th, 2012
OpEd: Former Stanford honors student calls North Korea's new leader a "Corleone"
Op-ed: The New York Times on March 4, 2012Former CISAC honors student Sheena Chestnut Greitens writes in an OpEd in The New York Times that North Korea's young new leader is a "Corleone" who now must be both head of state and mafia don. Chestnut Greitens' piece builds on her honors thesis about the state-sanctioned crime syndicate that permeates society in the isolated country.
January 6th, 2012
North Korea watchers look at Pyongyang's nuclear trajectory
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on January 6, 2012In the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Niko Milonopoulos, Siegfried Hecker and Robert Carlin use detailed overhead imagery to assess Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program -- and examine how Kim Jong-un's rise may influence it. In a separate piece, written before Kim Jong-il's death, Hecker and Carlin review the developments in North Korea in 2011.
December 12th, 2011
Why it's time for a serious conversation about nuclear weapons
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-edWriting in the San Francisco Chronicle, Benoît Pelopidas says we must review and debunk "three misguided ideas about nuclear weapons."
December 8th, 2011
North Korea experts: Pyongyang is now courting Beijing, not the U.S.
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: Los Angeles Times on December 8, 2011Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Robert Carlin and John Lewis argue that normalizing ties with the U.S. is no longer North Korea's priority. Both researchers have visited North Korea several times, including the only American visit to the uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon in November 2010. 
Read more »
December 6th, 2011
Charles Perrow discusses the "inevitability of accidents"
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-edWriting in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, sociologist Charles Perrow argues that "some complex systems with catastrophic potential are just too dangerous to exist because they cannot be made safe, regardless of human effort." Perrow, a visiting professor at CISAC, is the author of the landmark 1984 book Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies.
October 23rd, 2011
Charles Perrow: How technology can nudge climate change politics
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: Bloomberg View on October 23, 2011Writing in Bloomberg View, Charles Perrow says U.S. investment in carbon capture and storage technology could "induce China and Europe to follow suit." This "would allow the world time for renewable-energy technologies to mature -- to the point where we could do away with coal burning altogether." Read more »
October 10th, 2011
Sheena Chestnut Greitens: What Steve Jobs taught me about failure
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-edWriting in Newsweek, 2005 CISAC honors program graduate Sheena Chestnut Greitens reflects on Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement address and the hidden virtues of failure. Read more »
September 26th, 2011
Matthew Rojansky: For now, Putin's return is mostly good for U.S.-Russia relations
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: New York Times on September 26, 2011Former CISAC visiting scholar Matthew Rojansky argues in the New York Times that Vladimir Putin's return to the Russian presidency will not require a reset of the U.S. reset policy.
September 9th, 2011
Matthew Kroenig: Can terrorists be deterred?
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed"The deterrence approach that we advocated remains a poorly understood and underutilized element of U.S. counterterrorism strategy," write former CISAC fellow Matthew Kroenig and Barry Pavel in Foreign Policy. "It holds, however, great potential for helping to thwart future al Qaeda attacks." Read more »
September 7th, 2011
Amy Zegart: U.S. talk of defeating terrorism is dangerously premature
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: Los Angeles Times on September 7, 2011In the Los Angeles Times, Amy Zegart explains why the fight against Al Qaeda "is nowhere close to being won, and America's most perilous times may lie ahead." Read more »
August 1st, 2011
Dara K. Cohen: Why the numbers about sexual violence don't add up
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: Foreign Affairs on August 1, 2011In Foreign Affairs, Dara K. Cohen and co-authors argue that protecting women in conflict zones from sexual violence requires a better understanding of the extent of the problem. Read more »
July 31st, 2011
Matthew Kroenig: 'Nuclear Zero? Why Not Nuclear Infinity?'
Op-ed: The Wall Street Journal on July 30, 2011In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Matthew Kroenig argues "the world would not be safer if the U.S. had no nuclear weapons." Read more »
May 13th, 2011
Rodney Ewing: Why are rare events so common?
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed"More than a month has passed since the one-two punch of an earthquake and tsunami added a third dimension to the tragedy in Japan: a major nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station," writes CISAC's Rodney Ewing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. "Over the next year, the impact of the Fukushima disaster on the public's perception of nuclear power will evolve, with advocates portraying the event as an opportunity to make an indispensable source of energy safer, and critics characterizing it as a final indictment of the dangers of nuclear energy. As this debate develops, the public would be well served by answers to a few simple but critical questions." Read more »
April 21st, 2011
Kelly M. Greenhill: Why Qadaffi tried to use refugees as weapons
Op-ed: The New York Times on April 21, 2011"In the early days of what grew into the Libyan uprising, Muammar el-Qaddafi summoned European Union ministers to Tripoli and issued an ultimatum: Stop supporting the protesters, or I’ll suspend cooperation on migration and Europe will be facing a human flood of from North Africa," writes former CISAC fellow Kelly M. Greenhill. "Given Libya’s history as an attractive transit point for North Africans seeking entry to Europe, it was a credible threat." Read more »
March 23rd, 2011
Tarak Barkawi: Egypt and the globalized revolution
Op-ed: Al Jazeera on March 21, 2011"The question now is what kind of example will Egypt provide, to its Arab sisters and brothers, and to present and future struggles for justice, liberty and democracy the world over," writes former CISAC fellow Tarak Barkawi. Read more »
March 7th, 2011
William J. Perry: Why we need a new deterrence strategy
Op-ed: The Wall Street Journal on March 7, 2011Nations should move toward a strategy that does "not rely primarily on nuclear weapons or nuclear threats to maintain international peace and security," write CISAC's William J. Perry, George P. Shultz, Henry A. Kissinger, and Sam Nunn in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Read more »
Richard Rhodes: 'What if deterrence fails?'
Op-ed: The New York Times Book Review on March 6, 2011CISAC's Richard Rhodes reviews in the New York Times Ron Rosenbaum's "How the End Begins," which explores the possibility of a second Holocaust. Rhodes' most recent book is "The Twilight of the Bombs."
January 26th, 2011
Michael Sulmeyer: The Bob Gates management playbook
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed"Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates’ Jan. 6 announcement of major budget and program changes at the Pentagon was a watershed," writes Michael Sulmeyer, a predoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. "It canceled several multi-billion dollar weapons programs, redirected $100 billion from old programs to new ones, and laid the groundwork for reducing the active-duty size of America’s ground forces after a draw-down in Afghanistan. But in light of the rumors that Gates will step down sometime this year, his remarks soon after the announcement also helped to consolidate one particular aspect of his reformist legacy: managing our nation’s vast military weapons budget." Read more »
January 18th, 2011
Thomas Fingar: Don't make the Wikileaks problem worse
CISAC, FSI Stanford Op-ed: McClatchy-Tribune News Service on January 18, 2011Overreaction over Wikileaks is "likely unless there is a concerted effort to prevent it," write CISAC's Thomas Fingar and Roger George, a former national intelligence officer who teaches at the National War College. "The theft and unauthorized disclosure of these materials are inexcusable, but media coverage has consistently -- and predictably -- depicted a single, albeit horrendous, incident as indicative of widespread systemic deficiencies and makes it appear that Washington is unable to safeguard any classified information. That isn't the case." Read more »
January 6th, 2011
Pavel Podvig: Offense and defense after new START
Op-ed: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on January 6, 2010"New START is the last 'traditional' arms control agreement in that it exclusively deals with the two largest nuclear weapons states and their strategic nuclear weapons," writes CISAC affiliate and former research associate Pavel Podvig in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. "Further steps toward nuclear disarmament will require dealing with a range of different issues, and difficult issues in their own right -- from tactical nuclear weapons and conventional strategic launchers to nuclear warheads in storage and the arsenals in other nuclear weapon states. Success in dealing with these matters will depend on whether the United States and Russia find a way around a problem that will quite likely dominate the debate: missile defense."
January 4th, 2011
Redefining denuclearization in North Korea
Op-ed: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on December 20, 2010Siegfried Hecker: When my Stanford University colleagues and I were taken to the construction site of a small, experimental light water reactor (LWR) and to a new centrifuge facility in North Korea on November 12, it marked my seventh visit to North Korea and my fourth to the Yongbyon nuclear complex. I was not surprised that Pyongyang finally admitted to having a uranium enrichment program; however, I was stunned by the size and sophistication of the 2,000 centrifuges in the cascade hall visible from the ultra-modern second-floor control room. Read more »
January 3rd, 2011
Thomas Fingar: The view from Beijing
CISAC, FSI Stanford, Shorenstein APARC Op-ed: Foreign PolicyIn the January/February issue of Foreign Policy magazine, Thomas Fingar, the former deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, examines Chinese President Hu Jintao's assessment of the economic and political challenges his nation faces. China's "growth has bolstered national pride and earned the respect of people around the world," Fingar writes in an imagined memo from Hu. "But it has also raised expectations at home and reinforced foreign concerns about China's rise. Our successes have made it even more important to make progress on corruption, perceived injustice, and other long-standing problems." Read more »
December 10th, 2010
Siegfried Hecker: What the U.S. should do about North Korea
Op-ed: Foreign Affairs on December 10, 2010CISAC scholars made international news in November after North Korean scientists revealed to them that they had started construction on a small light-water reactor and completed a new uranium enrichment facility. The revelation dramatically changes the security calculus in Northeast Asia. In a Foreign Affairs article, Siegfried Hecker argues that denuclearization remains the goal. But that will take time. Now Washington should pursue a policy that begins with what he calls "the three no's -- no more bombs, no better bombs, and no exports -- in return for one yes: Washington's willingness to seriously address North Korea's fundamental insecurity." In a piece in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Hecker said "this approach may just be enough to get Beijing to take a much more aggressive stance to help shut down Pyongyang's nuclear import and export networks."
- » Foreign Affairs: "What I Found in North Korea"
- » Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "Redefining denuclearization in North Korea"
November 30th, 2010
Review U.S. policy toward North Korea
Op-ed: Washington Post on November 22, 2010"Review U.S. Policy Toward North Korea" by Robert Carlin and John Lewis.
November 10th, 2010
The G20 meeting was 'A Missed Opportunity'
Op-ed: Brookings Institution on November 10, 2010At this week’s G20 meeting in Seoul, world leaders are gathering to discuss economic and financial issues, leaving pressing security issues to be managed at bilateral talks or at the U.N. Security Council. Bruce Jones, a CISAC visiting scholar, says this is a missed opportunity. “If the G-20 continues to exclude diplomatic and security issues,” he argues, “the leaders who attend it may conclude that it doesn’t reflect their hard political priorities.” What’s needed is a new model for international cooperation, which “lets leaders discuss their overlapping security and economic interests, rather than keeping them artificially apart.”