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32. How the U.S. Foreign Policy Establishment Constrains American Grand Strategy
- Author:
- Patrick Porter
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Political scientists and historians continue to debate the sources of U.S. grand strategy. Some emphasize the importance of the United States’ material capabilities and large share of relative power; others point to the significance of ideas in shaping policymakers’ choices. Both accounts are incomplete. Two case studies—the first eighteen months of the presidency of Donald Trump and the presidency of Bill Clinton—demonstrate that the United States persists with a strategy of primacy because it has become a habit—an axiomatic, sacrosanct belief system that the American foreign policy establishment perpetuates.
- Topic:
- International Affairs and Geopolitics
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
33. Policy Evolution Under the Clean Air Act
- Author:
- Richard Schmalensee and Robert Stavins
- Publication Date:
- 11-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The U.S. Clean Air Act, passed in 1970 with strong bipartisan support, was the first environmental law to give the Federal government a serious regulatory role, established the architecture of the U.S. air pollution control system, and became a model for subsequent environmental laws in the United States and globally. We outline the Act’s key provisions, as well as the main changes Congress has made to it over time. We assess the evolution of air pollution control policy under the Clean Air Act, with particular attention to the types of policy instruments used. We provide a generic assessment of the major types of policy instruments, and we trace and assess the historical evolution of EPA’s policy instrument use, with particular focus on the increased use of market-based policy instruments, beginning in the 1970s and culminating in the 1990s. Over the past fifty years, air pollution regulation has gradually become much more complex, and over the past twenty years, policy debates have become increasingly partisan and polarized, to the point that it has become impossible to amend the Act or pass other legislation to address the new threat of climate change.
- Topic:
- Climate Change and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
34. GHG Cap-and-Trade: Implications for Effective and Efficient Climate Policy in Oregon
- Author:
- Todd Schatzki and Robert Stavins
- Publication Date:
- 11-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Like many other states, Oregon has begun to pursue climate policies to attempt to fill the gap created by the lack of effective climate policy at the Federal level. After adopting a variety of policies to address climate change and other environmental impacts from energy use, Oregon is now contemplating the adoption of a greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade system. However, interactions between policies can have important consequences for environmental and economic outcomes. Thus, as Oregon considers taking this step, reconsidering the efficacy of its other current climate policies may better position the state to achieve long-run emission reductions at sustainable economic costs.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
35. Jihadists from Ex-Soviet Central Asia: Where Are They? Why Did They Radicalize? What Next?
- Author:
- Edward Lemon, Vera Mironova, and William H. Tobey
- Publication Date:
- 08-2018
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In the fall of 2016 Fletcher School professor Monica Duffy Toft and I were completing work on an issue brief in which we argued that the Islamic State should be further rolled back and dismantled rather than allowed to remain in the hopes that it would somehow become a normal state. IS was already in retreat at the time, having lost much of the territories it had once controlled in Syria and Iraq.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
36. No Exceptions: The Decision to Open All Military Positions to Women
- Author:
- Ash Carter
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- As Secretary of Defense, I devoted a large amount of my time to visiting our troops at bases around the world. These were my favorite trips because they gave me the opportunity to spend time with the most important, dynamic, and inspiring part of the United States Armed Forces: our people In June 2016, I visited Fort Knox on one of these trips, where I met with Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets and observed their training. These were college students training to be commissioned officers. Meeting with them, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride. Any American who had the chance to look these young women and men in the eye would be proud to observe how dedicated, disciplined, talented, and principled they are. And to know what they are doing for all Americans—to protect us and make a better world for our children—makes you even prouder.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
37. Governance of Highly Decentralized Nonstate Actors: the Case of Solar Geoengineering
- Author:
- Jesse Reynolds and Gernot Wagner
- Publication Date:
- 11-2018
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- New technologies, such as social media and do-it-yourself biotechnology, alter the capacities and incentives of both state and nonstate actors. This can include enabling direct decentralized interventions, in turn altering actors’ power relations. The provision of global public goods, widely regarded as states’ domain, so far has eluded such powerful technological disruptions. We here introduce the idea of highly decentralized solar geoengineering, plausibly done in form of small high-altitude balloons. While solar geoengineering has the potential to greatly reduce climate change, it has generally been conceived as centralized and state deployed. Potential highly decentralized deployment moves the activity from the already contested arena of state action to that of environmentally motivated nongovernmental organizations and individuals, which could disrupt international relations and pose novel challenges for technology and environmental policy. We explore its feasibility, political implications, and governance.
- Topic:
- Climate Change and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
38. Governing Cooperative Approaches under the Paris Agreement
- Author:
- Michael A Mehling
- Publication Date:
- 11-2018
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Parties to the Paris Agreement can engage in voluntary cooperation and use internationally transferred mitigation outcomes towards their national climate pledges. Doing so promises to lower the cost of achieving agreed climate objectives, which can, in turn, allow Parties to increase their mitigation efforts with given resources. Lower costs do not automatically translate into greater climate ambition, however. Transfers that involve questionable mitigation outcomes can effectively increase overall emissions, affirming the need for a sound regulatory framework. As Parties negotiate guidance on the implementation of cooperative approaches under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, they are therefore considering governance options to secure environmental integrity and address the question of overall climate ambition. Drawing on an analytical framework that incorporates economic theory and deliberative jurisprudence, practical case studies, and treaty interpretation, this Working Paper maps central positions of actors in the negotiations and evaluates relevant options included in the latest textual proposal.
- Topic:
- Climate Change and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
39. From Silicon Valley to Shenzhen: Dollar Exposures in Chinese Fintech
- Author:
- Michael B Greenwald
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In the post-9/11 era, Washington has waged innovative campaigns against terrorism finance, sanctions evasion, and money laundering. Leveraging America’s heavyweight status in the international financial system, the United States Treasury has isolated and bankrupted rogue regimes, global terrorists, and their enablers. As financial technology transforms global business, the traditional financial system faces new competition across a suite of offerings, ranging from brokerage services to peer to peer lending. In no area is this clearer than in mobile payments, where a global hegemon lies ready to exercise its weight, and it is not the United States
- Topic:
- International Relations, International Affairs, and Financial Markets
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
40. The China Tariff Mess
- Author:
- Martin S. Feldstein
- Publication Date:
- 09-2018
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The cost to US consumers and firms imposed by tariffs on Chinese imports is not large relative to the gain that would be achieved if the US succeeds in persuading China to stop illegally taking US firms’ technology. But the Trump administration should state that this is the goal, and that the tariffs will be removed when it is met.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, International Political Economy, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus