International Relations

The Belfer Center launched its annual International Council meeting on April 9 with animated discussions of, among others, U.S. energy politics, the links between economic policy and national security, cybersecurity, and the rise of China. Participants included members of the Center's International Council and Board of Directors as well as faculty and senior fellows.

“Debating the pros and cons of government policy, applying scientific methods to pressing national challenges and teaching the next generation...that’s ultimately what gets me out of bed in the morning” says Michael Beckley, a research fellow with the Belfer Center’s International Security Program. According to Beckley, who expects to receive his Ph.D. from Columbia University later this year, “It is clear to me that public policy, both domestic and foreign, has a tremendous effect on people’s lives and that individuals armed with information, can and should work to improve those policies.”

The Belfer Center's Graham Allison, Nicholas Burns, Ashraf Hegazy, Joseph S. Nye, and Stephen Walt consider the U.S.'s shifting foreign policy in the Middle East.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu opened the inaugural event of the Crown-Belfer Middle East Seminar Series in September.  The series is a joint venture between the Belfer Center and Brandeis' Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

"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.

Niall Ferguson is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and a member of the Belfer Center Board of Directors.

A new report from the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements outlined several promising ideas for successors to the Kyoto Protocol ... guidance on the most intractable challenges facing global climate negotiators, including participation by developing countries, how to reduce deforestation, and how to prevent a "collision" between climate policy and international trade law

An intensive three-day conference hosted y the Belfer Center's Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution focused on the challenges and opportunities of state building in Afghanistan. Participants agreed that effective reconstruction of Afghanistan depends on strengthening security, reducing poppy production, decreasing the hold of narcoterrorists, improving regional commercial linkages, enhancing a sense of nationhood, and bolstering good governance.