Governance

Belfer Center Fellow Syra Madad, Senior Director of the System-wide Special Pathogens Program at NYC Health + Hospitals and Belfer Center Fellow, has been named to the World Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on the Responsible Use of the Life Sciences and Dual-Use Research.

Read the Arctic Initiative team's highlights from the 2023 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland.

In May 2023, the Arctic Initiative hosted a workshop in partnership with the Science and Technology Directorate of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The focus was on the challenges posed by the impacts of rapid climate change in Alaska; how DHS and its components— including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)—are addressing them; and what possibilities may exist for DHS to do more and better.

Since September 2022, the Arctic Initiative - together with collaborators at the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute, the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, and the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Affairs - has hosted a series of workshops with Arctic governance experts and practitioners to explore possible pathways for cooperation through the Arctic Council and the broader network of institutions that support the management of Arctic issues, as well as pathways for eventual engagement with Russia.

In September 2023, the Arctic Initiative hosted the official launch of “Arctic Pandemics: COVID-19 and Other Pandemic Experiences and Lessons Learned,” a special Arctic Yearbook issue that examines the health, social, cultural, and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Arctic. 

The Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative, in collaboration with the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry and the Permafrost Pathways Project, co-organized a week-long workshop for Indigenous youth titled, “Exploring Arctic Sustainability: Enhancing Resilience, Addressing Land Degradation, and Permafrost Thaw Through Indigenous Empowerment.” With support from the United Nations Global Environment Facility (GEF), the program brought together nearly 20 Indigenous youth from Alaska, Canada, Mongolia, Norway, and Sweden for a week of climate leadership training and dialogue on how a rapidly changing Arctic is detrimentally impacting Indigenous identities, livelihoods, and ways of life.

Belfer Fellow Syra Madad Commends Department of Defense for Inaugural 2023 Biodefense Posture Review.

Arctic Initiative Faculty Affiliate Stuart Harris has been chosen as a finalist for the 2023 Frederik Paulsen Arctic Academic Action Award, recognizing scientific and academic ideas that are action-oriented and hold potential for addressing the challenges and critical needs posed by climate change in the Arctic region.

On March 31 at the Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage, Alaska, the government of Norway presented its program for Norway’s upcoming Chairship of the Arctic Council. In response, John Holdren, Co-Director of the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, issued the following statement of support.

On January 26, 2023, the Arctic Initiative hosted a book talk featuring Arctic Initiative Affiliate Douglas Causey, and Christian Leuprecht, Class of 1965 Professor in Leadership at the Royal Military College of Canada. Drawing from their new book, Polar Cousins: Comparing Antarctic and Arctic Geostrategic Futures, co-editors Causey and Leuprecht discussed the impacts of geopolitics and climate change on national and international security interests in both polar regions, as well as the lessons learned from the Arctic experience for addressing emerging challenges relating to governance, environmental protection, and maritime operations in the Antarctic.