The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
Renewables are widely perceived as an opportunity to shatter the hegemony of fossil fuel-rich states and democratize the energy landscape. Virtually all countries have access to some renewable energy resources (especially solar and wind power) and could thus substitute foreign supply with local resources. Our research shows, however, that the role countries are likely to assume in decarbonized energy systems will be based not only on their resource endowment but also on their policy choices.
As the United States emerges from the era of so-called forever wars, it should abandon the regime change business for good. Then, Washington must understand why it failed, writes Stephen Walt.
This Oct. 15, 1965, file photo shows a "Fat Man" nuclear bomb of the type tested at Trinity Site, N.M, and dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, on view for the public at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Museum. July 16, 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the Trinity Test in southern N.M.
"Oppenheimer," the epic new movie directed by Christopher Nolan, takes audiences into the mind and moral decisions of J. Robert Oppenheimer, leader of the team of brilliant scientists in Los Alamos, New Mexico, who built the world’s first atomic bomb. It’s not a documentary, but it gets the big historical moments and subjects right.
The issues that Nolan depicts are not relics of a distant past. The new world that Oppenheimer helped to create, and the nuclear nightmare he feared, still exists today.
Charges that Oppenheimer was a Soviet spy and a security risk — a major focus of the movie — have been disproved. In December 2022, the Biden administration posthumously voided the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's 1954 decision to revoke Oppenheimer's security clearance, calling that process biased and unfair. Declassified records reveal that Soviet spying on the U.S. atomic bomb effort advanced Moscow's bomb program, but Oppenheimer was no spy.
Oppenheimer's perspective
Oppenheimer joined the Manhattan Project, a nationwide effort to build an atomic bomb before the Nazis developed one, in 1942. The scientists he led at the Los Alamos site were probably the most talented group of minds ever assembled in a single laboratory, including 12 eventual Nobel laureates....
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The full text of this publication is available via The Conversation.
For Academic Citation:
Walton, Calder.“How the Soviets Stole Nuclear Secrets and Targeted Oppenheimer, the 'Father of the Atomic Bomb'.” The Conversation, July 24, 2023.
How important is saving face in a nation’s major decision-making? Sahar Nowrouzzadeh examines the role of face-saving measures in reaching the Iran nuclear deal in 2015.
Instigating a race between the U.S., China, and others to meet climate financing needs of countries in Africa and elsewhere will catapult us to a new level of climate action, writes Meghan O'Sullivan.
Using the influential Belfer Center journal “International Security” as an example, Sean Lynn-Jones explores ways articles can influence national security policy by advancing new or challenging old ideas.
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- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
