HKS in the News March 23, 2012

1. North Korea and Iran Will Dominate Nuclear Summit in Seoul (Allison) New York Times

2. After 43 Years, Army Welcomed in Harvard Yard Once More (Gergen) Harvard Crimson

3. Health care ruling could send fight back to Congress (Burke) MSNBC

North Korea and Iran Will Dominate Nuclear Summit in Seoul
New York Times
March 23
Quoted: Graham Allison, Belfer Center
Topic: Nuclear security summit
Graham Allison and William Tobey were also cited on this topic in theKorea Herald and USA Today.

SEOUL, South Korea — President Obama will join the leaders of more than 50 countries here next week for a nuclear security summit, where fears about two rogue states, North Korea and Iran, will loom over a meeting ostensibly about the perils of nuclear terrorism.

Mr. Obama, administration officials said, is likely to urge China to use its influence to curb the latest provocation by North Korea: the regime’s announcement of plans to launch a satellite, atop a long-range missile, to honor its revered founder, Kim Il-sung. …

Still, said Graham Allison, a nuclear terrorism expert and director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, “For focusing attention on a problem, conferences like this are powerful.”

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After 43 Years, Army Welcomed in Harvard Yard Once More
Harvard Crimson
March 22
Quoted: David Gergen, Center for Public Leadership
Topic: ROTC at Harvard

In the latest step to reverse the more-than-40-year exclusion of the military from Harvard Yard, the University announced Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with the U.S. Army to formally recognize the Army Senior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. The recognition follows the return of Naval ROTC to campus last year. …

Harvard Kennedy School professor David R. Gergen called the return of Army SROTC to Harvard a “welcome step forward.” Gergen, an adviser in the Clinton White House, has consistently praised Faust’s leadership during the transition.

Gergen had previously said that Harvard’s decision in 2011 to recognize NROTC would “likely...have a ripple effect across the nation.”

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Health care ruling could send fight back to Congress
MSNBC
March 22
Quoted: Sheila Burke, Wiener Center for Social Policy
Topic: Affordable Care Act

The fate of President Obama’s biggest legislative achievement will be debated in the nation’s highest court next week but that doesn’t mean the fight won’t continue back in the legislative branch of government regardless of how the court eventually rules.

On Monday, the justices of the Supreme Court will begin three days of oral argument on the 2010 health care overhaul, the Affordable Care Act, considering the constitutionality of two of its core provisions: an expansion of the Medicaid program for lower-income Americans and, more important, the individual mandate -- the requirement that almost every adult American purchase health insurance. …

“The environment in which those conversations are likely to take place … will be so poisoned” that it will be difficult for members of each party to draw back from the hardline positions they’ve taken, said Sheila Burke, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who now teaches at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

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In the HKS TV Studio

Stephen Walt, Belfer Center
CNN, 3/22/12
Topic: Iraq war