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Lucas Papademos, the Belfer Center-based Minos A. Zombanakis Professor at Harvard Kennedy School, has been named prime minister of Greece and will lead an interim government of national unity until elections in just over three months.

The Belfer Center launched a new professorship this spring named for Minos A.Zombanakis, chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank's International Advisory Council for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, a Harvard Kennedy School alum and member of the Belfer Center International Council.

"Innovation and Adaptation in the Middle East"-the Dubai Initiative's annual conference in May-explored unique responses to the challenges facing the region. Topics included state formation and the role of political Islam, the challenges of the "youth bulge" in the region, and the changing financial markets and global economies.

King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein welcomed Belfer Center and other Harvard Kennedy School faculty to Jordan in January to launch a pioneering Kennedy School executive program titled "Leading for the Future: The Middle East in a Changing World."

Paul Volcker and John Holdren headlined the annual meeting of the Belfer Center International Council. Volcker, chair of President Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, launched a thought-provoking discussion of "The American Economy, the Global Economy, and the Financial Order." Holdren provided an insightful look into the Administration's policies regarding science and technology.

Global leaders are facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Though Lawrence Summers, on leave from Harvard Kennedy School and the Belfer Center to serve as director of the National Economic Council, predicted that the sense of "freefall" may end in the next several months, a recovery is likely to still be some distance away. Belfer Center experts offer their thoughts on where the situation is headed, and what policymakers should do now.

“We must achieve both security and solvency. In fact, the foundation of military strength is economic strength.” Dwight D. Eisenhower’s comments during his presidential campaign in 1952 resonate today as Center scholars consider possible impacts of the current economic crisis on global security. Belfer Center Board of Director members Martin Feldstein, Jeffrey Frankel, and Lawrence Summers, and International Council member Paul Volcker, offer suggestions for dealing with the financial upheaval.

Robert Zoellick, International Security Program research fellow (1999-2000) and Kennedy School alumnus, was appointed in July 2007 as the 11th president of the World Bank, the international poverty-alleviating organization owned by 185 member countries. 

News from the Belfer Center.