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With Russia's war against Ukraine grinding past the one-year mark, the Belfer Center's Russia Matters team has redoubled its efforts to analyze the drivers and consequences of the conflict. 

The Belfer Center’s Project on Managing the Atom, Intelligence Project, and Applied History Project organized a day-long conference in October to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis and to discuss what we’ve learned from the CMC. Managing the Atom’s Mariana Budjeryn discusses the relevance of those lessons for today’s conflict in Ukraine.

Russia’s brutal invasion of a sovereign democratic country in February shocked the world. Moscow’s forces have targeted civilians across Ukraine, while Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened to unleash weapons of mass destruction. 

The Belfer Center is not a passive observer of this war. Our community of diplomats, national security analysts, intelligence officials, and generals, along with nuclear, energy, and cyber experts have been working non-stop to advance policy-relevant insights. 

Mariana Budjeryn, a Research Associate with the Center's Project on Managing the Atom, is a Ukrainian citizen. She grew up in Lviv, Ukraine, and was there visiting family days before the Russian invasion began. In this video, recorded on May 4, she shares her thoughts and feelings about the war and how her family and friends in Ukraine are doing and thinking about their critical situation.

On May 10, the Belfer Center Project on Managing the Atom launched the Research Network on Rethinking Nuclear Deterrence to address two fundamental and interrelated questions: (1) Given the deteriorating geopolitical and security landscape, how do we make sure nuclear deterrence does not fail? And (2) What alternatives can replace nuclear deterrence, and what conditions should exist to materialize them?