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Ukraine House aimed to unify and inform the response of the global community to Russia’s war on Ukraine. As part of their programming,  Ukraine House brought together high-level government, civic society, and business leaders amplifying the country’s voice. 

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The Belfer Center is not a passive observer of the war in Ukraine. Our community of diplomats, national security analysts, intelligence officials, and generals, along with nuclear, energy, and cyber experts have been working non-stop to advance policy-relevant insights.

As you’ll see in our latest newsletter, this is an all-hands effort that shows the distinctive value of the Belfer Center’s multi-faceted research. I have a deep personal connection to this conflict. In the 1990s, I helped dismantle nuclear missile silos in Ukraine as part of the Nunn-Lugar program. That remarkable bipartisan effort grew from important work at the Belfer Center.

Amid scenes of brutal destruction in Ukraine today, our mission to advance research, ideas, and leadership for a more secure, peaceful world has never been more urgent. There’s much more in this newsletter about vital work the Center is doing in other critical areas.

Ash Carter

NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana served as the keynote speaker for this program highlighting 25 years of the U.S-Romania Strategic Partnership. The benefits and challenges of NATO enlargement were explored with a panel of global affairs thought leaders.

On May 1, 2022, John Holdren accepted the NAS Public Welfare Medal and delivered an address on the topic of "Speaking Science to Power" at the Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. 

Ambassador Dobriansky discussed great power competition (namely China and Russia) and the future of geopolitics in a fireside chat with Andrew Natsios, former Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, current Director for the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs. 

On April 26, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, in partnership with the HKS Africa Caucus, hosted His Excellency Dr. Martin Kimani, Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, to share his perspective on current global crises.  Ambassador Kimani made headlines earlier this year for his public rebuke of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during a speech at the UN Security Council, demonstrating the powerful role Africa can play in global affairs, in a new era of great power competition.

On April 6, 2022,  the Belfer Center's Future of Diplomacy Project and Indo-Pacific Security Project as well as the Center for Public Leadership hosted a hybrid seminar with Ambassador Shivshankar Menon, former National Security Advisor of India and former Foreign Secretary in India’s Ministry of External Affairs, and Ambassador Richard Verma, former U.S. Ambassador to India and Belfer Center Senior Fellow, on India’s foreign policy and U.S.-India relations in a changing world order. The discussion explored why India abstained from recent U.N. votes deploring Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, what that means for U.S.-India relations, both bilateral and through the Quad, and how the war in Ukraine will affect geopolitics in Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific. Gopal Nadadur, MPA/ID candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School moderated this conversation.

On March 31,  the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies hosted a discussion with Wolfgang Ischinger, former Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Joseph S. Nye Jr., Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, and Daniela Schwarzer, Executive Director for Europe and Eurasia at the Open Society Foundations, on how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as the brutality of its action has caused an unexpected reversal of Germany’s long time security policy and led to strong reactions in the rest of Europe, NATO, and the posture of the Biden administration. The seminar examined the dimensions and consequences of these developments for the future of the EU and the West. Karl Kaiser, Senior Fellow at the Project on Europe, moderated.

To forge a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine, much analysis has rightly focused on efforts to build sufficient leverage (e.g. via sanctions, military aid to Ukraine, etc.) and to design possible agreements (e.g. ceasefires, troop withdrawals, the relationship of Ukraine to NATO and the EU, the status of the Donbas and Crimea, etc.). Yet transforming leverage and deal concepts into an actual war-ending agreement requires tactical and interpersonal skill, almost certainly involving dealing with Vladimir Putin. Based on their lengthy personal negotiations with this challenging Russian leader, this video compilation delivers highly relevant insights from Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Rex Tillerson. 

On March 25, the Soft Power & Cultural Diplomacy Study Group hosted Lee Satterfield, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, for a conversation about "The U.S. Department of State's Cultural Diplomacy Strategy."