The secretary of state has postponed diplomatic travel during the coronavirus pandemic, which experts say is a challenge at a moment of flux in the world.

On Wednesday, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the President of a nation at a pivotal moment, and the world will be watching because all democracies are in this moment together.

The view from Biden's podium at the United States Capitol, looking down over Washington DC's National Mall, will not be pretty.

Harvard Kennedy School faculty share insights into the evident fragility of American democratic norms and institutions following the attack on the United States Capitol by followers of President Trump. These essays examine the nature and scale of the threat and weigh potential avenues for protecting and nurturing democracy. They were written before the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Trump on Wednesday for the second time.

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) convened a strategy group of experts and former government officials from the United States and Europe over the past year to discuss the crisis in the transatlantic relationship and to propose a strategy to revive and strengthen it.

Adviser to President-Elect Biden’s foreign policy team Amb. Nicholas Burns discusses Joe Biden introducing his national security team and why he felt that today is a moment of hope

As President-elect Joe Biden announces his picks for the State Department's top positions, experts are making recommendations for how the department needs to change. As The World's Rupa Shenoy reports, many blame the Trump administration for the agency’s current status of profound crisis. But they say the problems are structural and began long before the current president took office.

Mr. Biden said he would name Mr. Kerry to a cabinet-level climate post, a role laden with political and diplomatic challenges in the post-Trump era. 

On November 17, Ambassadors Nicholas Burns, Marc Grossman, and Marcie Ries officially launched their report, “A U.S. Diplomatic Service for the 21st Century,”published as part of the American Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.  These distinguished career Foreign Service Officers, and report co-authors, shared their recommendations on how to rebuild, reform, and reimagine the U.S. Foreign Service so that America can have the strongest and most effective diplomatic service to defend our country and advance its interests. 

President Trump this week replaced top Pentagon officials with people personally dedicated to him, starting by firing defense secretary Mark Esper on Monday and continuing by installing more loyalists in high-ranking positions there on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a Fox News interview Tuesday that he is telling world leaders that the election is not over yet, as Trump continues to refuse to concede. To discuss, Jim Braude was joined by former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the U.S. State Department and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, who worked on the Biden campaign as a foreign policy advisor.

Ambassador Nicholas Burns, the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, spoke in a virtual webinar for CCWA on October 26, 2020. Ambassador Burns discussed the role of foreign policy in the 2020 election and the changing role of the United States in the world. During Q&A, the Ambassador addressed emerging global powers and the U.S. foreign service, among other global issues.