Please join the Belfer Center for a Homeland Security Seminar with former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security John Tien, a Belfer Center Senior Fellow and former National Security Fellow, and Faculty Chair of the Homeland Security Project Juliette Kayyem.

They will discuss the challenges facing America’s safety and security in a time of increased global threats and domestic unrest. Twenty years into the Department of Homeland Security's start, as it manages issues as far flung as immigration surges, domestic radicalization, and climate change, was the post-9/11 experiment in creating a new federal agency successful?

This event will be off-the-record and in person.

Please join the Belfer Center’s Defense Project for a seminar on the Boston Marathon Bombings featuring former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, Juliette Kayyem, and Eric Rosenbach. The event will be held in the Allison Dining Room on Tuesday, April 4th from 3:30 - 4:30pm.

Attendance is limited to Harvard ID holders only. Please RSVP here.

For over fifty years, Sesame Street has proven itself capable of adapting to different cultures and celebrating diversity. In fact, Sesame Street has become the longest street in the world—reaching and teaching children in 150 countries around the world.  This session will examine how Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, uses the power of media and Muppets to bring proven, locally-tailored early education to millions of children around the world across languages and cultures, while addressing challenging topics like public health, HIV awareness, and the global refugee crisis. This session will also touch on the advocacy aims of Sesame Street, and the impact that their unique programming has had in the field of education.

The Soft Power & Cultural Diplomacy Study Group is designed for anyone interested in learning more about these two topics in addressing foreign relations. Over the course of four sessions, participants will become familiar with the history of cultural diplomacy and will better understand how the power of the arts has repeatedly been deployed by governments to help achieve foreign policy objectives. The group will analyze historical examples and hear from current practitioners. Furthermore, the group will be asked to envision future uses of cultural diplomacy as a tactic for addressing current foreign policy challenges.

Key Learning Outcomes

Participants will:

• Gain an understanding of cultural diplomacy and its relevance to the government and artistic sector.
• Learn about important global cultural diplomacy initiatives and analyze their outcomes.
• Explore the use of cultural diplomacy and soft power as tools to further U.S. foreign policy objectives.
• Understand public diplomacy and how it differs from cultural diplomacy
• Assess present-day foreign affairs and national security challenges in a cultural context, and consider how cultural diplomacy and soft power can play a role in seeking resolutions.
• Discuss why cultural diplomacy is not always successful and what can be done to prevent this from happening.

Study Group Facilitators: 

• Carla Dirlikov Canales, United States Department of State Cultural Envoy, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow (carla_dirlikovcanales@harvard.edu)
• Erika Manouselis, Research and Administrative Manager, Future of Diplomacy Project (Erika_manouselis@hks.harvard.edu)

Please join the Intelligence Project and Homeland Security Project for a panel discussion with Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Professor Juliette Kayyem, and Paul Kolbe on the intelligence and security failures which preceded and enabled the Capitol riot on January 6th and what this means for the future of countering domestic extremism.

This event is open to the public and will take place on Wednesday February 10th from 1:00-2:30pm via Zoom. Advance registration required. 

Alan Bersin and Chappell Lawson join Juliette Kayyem and the Homeland Security Project to discuss what it means to "secure the homeland" in the twenty-first century. They will share their insights from time serving in government to draw lessons from the first two decades of U.S. government efforts to secure the homeland and address some of the most salient challenges of homeland security today.

Join W3D, in collaboration with the Future of Diplomacy Project and Diplomacy PIC, for a virtual conversation with Farah Pandith and Juliette Kayyem on the state of homeland security 19 years after 9/11. We'll discuss how homeland security has changed over that time, what new challenges it will face in the future, and more with two of the leading experts in the field! 

Please click here to RSVP for the virtual event.  Confirmed attendees will receive the Zoom link via email. 

Join the Cyber Project and the Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P) as we convene tech, government, health, and policy experts in an important discussion on the federal government's efforts to work with tech companies and academia in using citizen data to track and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. 

Our main question: How do we get this right--to save lives and preserve privacy and security?

We will use this discussion to generate policy recommendations for the relevant task force working on this issue within the federal government. 

The Working Group will feature experts from Harvard Kennedy School, the Belfer Center, and MIT*

The Honorable Sue Gordon                    Eric Rosenbach

Juliette Kayyem                                         Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux

Jim Waldo                                                   Bruce Schneier

Alex Stamos                                                Kathy Pham

Robby Mook                                               Dr. Marc Zissman

Andrew McLaughlin, J.D.                       Jonathan Zittrain

*Working group still in formation.  Please see full titles of Working Group Members in tab below

Nearly 20 years since 9/11 and we have not vanquished the appeal of extremist ideology. Groups are still recruiting youth in every part of the world, and today a real strategy to deal with the rise of hate and extremism is not on policy agendas. Whether white supremacists or the so called Islamic State, extremists have mastered selling their narratives despite the fact that solutions to this threat are available right now. 

IOP Resident Fellow, S’14 and Belfer Fellow Farah Pandith, Anti-Defamation League George Selim, Harvard Kennedy School’s Eric Rosenbach, and Juliette Kayyem '91 consider how to combat domestic and international extremism.