Publications

WCFIA Publications

The Weatherhead Center has developed a presence on the Internet that, to a growing readership, is playing a significant role in the projection of Harvard scholarship on international affairs. The site includes: faculty research available through categorical fields of inquiry; searches by author, subject, title or date of publication; Working Papers selected for online distribution based on their relevance to contemporary issues in international affairs; In the News links to op-ed and other pieces written by or about the Center’s faculty associates; and recent books by faculty associates, including editorial summaries. The Center is always adding to the hundreds of academic articles available on its site and responding to the interests of Center faculty and other users in making the site an indispensable scholarly tool.

Below are a selection of our most recently uploaded publications.


Regional Multilateralism: The Next Paradigm in Global Affairs
by Mylonas, Harris; Yorulmazlar, Emirhan
Publisher: CNN World
Publication Type: In the News
The Cold War and the early post-Cold War periods were relatively easy to define and comprehend. The first was roughly the struggle between two superpowers forming a bipolar system where almost...
Published Date: January 2012 More
The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea
by Kim, Byung Kook; Vogel, Ezra F.
In 1959 South Korea was mired in poverty. By 1979 it had a powerful industrial economy and a vibrant civil society in the making, which would lead to a democratic breakthrough eight years later. The...
Publication Type: Book
Published Date: April 2011 More

Sovereign Debt Disputes: A Database on Government Coerciveness During Debt Crises
by Enderlein, Henrik; Trebesch, Christoph ; von Daniels, Laura
This paper measures “debt disputes” between governments and foreign private creditors in periods of sovereign debt crises. We construct an index of government coerciveness, consisting of...
Publication Type: Published Paper
Published Date: December 2011 More
Histories of Innocence: Post-War Stories in Peru
by Theidon, Kimberly S.
On November 1, 2006, Peruvian president Alan García announced he would be proposing a new law that would include the death penalty as one sanction for terrorism in the Penal Code. As he argued,...
Publication Type: Book Chapter
Published Date: August 2010 More
Do Primaries Improve Electoral Performance? Evidence from Ghana
by Ichino, Nahomi; Nathan, Noah
We consider the effect of legislative primaries on electoral performance of political parties in a new democracy. Primaries may hurt a party by selecting extremist candidates, or they may improve...
Publication Type: Working Papers
Published Date: May 2011 More
Understanding Global Trade
by Helpman, Elhanan
Global trade is of vital interest to citizens as well as policymakers, yet it is widely misunderstood. This compact exposition of the market forces underlying international commerce addresses both...
Publication Type: Book
Published Date: April 2011 More

A Linder Hypothesis for Foreign Direct Investment
by Helpman, Elhanan
We study patterns of FDI in a multi-country world economy. First, we present evidence for a broad sample of countries that firms direct FDI disproportionately to markets with income levels similar to...
Publication Type: Working Papers
Published Date: October 2011 More
Fiscal Devaluations
by Gopinath, Gita
We show that even when the exchange rate cannot be devalued, a small set of conventional fiscal instruments can robustly replicate the real allocations attained under a nominal exchange rate...
Publication Type: Working Papers
Published Date: November, 2011 More
Trade Prices and the Global Trade Collapse of 2008–2009
by Gopinath, Gita
We document the behavior of trade prices during the Great Trade Collapse of 2008–2009 using transaction-level data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. First, we find that differentiated...
Publication Type: Working Papers
Published Date: November, 2011 More
Romney to the Rescue
by Ferguson, Niall
Publisher: The Daily Beast
Publication Type: Op-ed
This column is for Ted Forstmann: financier, fun lover, and philanthropist, who died on Nov. 20. But it’s not just for him. It’s to him. Ted, I’m worried. I wish you were still around to...
Published Date: November 2011 More
A Eulogy for Financier Ted Forstmann
by Ferguson, Niall
Publisher: The Daily Beast
Publication Type: Op-ed
Some of you knew Ted Forstmann much better than I did. Most of you knew him much longer. When Ted’s family and closest colleagues asked me to join Mayor Bloomberg and Charlie Rose in offering a...
Published Date: November 2011 More
Obama Team’s Al-Awlaki Memo Furthered Bush Legacy
by Feldman, Noah
Publisher: Bloomberg View
Publication Type: Op-ed
Killing terrorists with drones is great politics. To the question, “Is it legal?” a natural answer might well be, “Who cares?” But the legal justifications in the war on terrorism do...
Published Date: October 2011 More
Technology Diffusion and Postwar Growth
by Comin, Diego
In the aftermath of World War II, the world's economies exhibited very different rates of economic recovery. We provide evidence that those countries that caught up the most with the US in the...
Publication Type: Working Papers
Published Date: June, 2010 More
What Really Went Wrong in Greece?
by Mylonas, Harris
Publisher: CNN.com
Publication Type: Op-ed
After reading about the Greek debt crisis for over a year now, you might think you understand what it’s all about. You’re probably wrong. International media focus on how the Greek government...
Published Date: November 2011 More
Addressing ‘the Kurdish Question’
by Martin, Lenore G.
Publisher: New York Times
Publication Type: Op-ed
It is obvious that the Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s “zero problems with the neighbors” policy no longer works, in the face of Turkey’s support for the Syrian defectors who...
Published Date: November 2011 More