Events

  • President Biden spoke with President Ghani on 14 April 2021, affirming U.S. support for continued development, humanitarian, and security assistance in Afghanistan and for a political settlement that lets the Afghan people live in peace.

    White House Photo

    Seminar - Open to the Public

    After Disengagement: U.S. Interests and the Future of Afghanistan

    Thu., Apr. 29, 2021 | 4:00pm - 5:30pm

    Online

    Speakers: Laurel Miller, Director, Asia Program, International Crisis Group; William Ruger, Vice-President, Charles Koch Institute

    President Biden has announced that U.S. combat forces will leave Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, ending America's longest war. What lies ahead? How will the end of America's military role affect conditions in Afghanistan, and what impact will this have on U.S. interests in the region and beyond?

    Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Please register before the event:
    https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0sdeqgpj4rGd0EAlEmMUutvJVQWARBB9xw 

  • 16 DF-41 launchers from two brigades were showcased, along with other nuclear weapons, in China's October 2019 military parade.

    Federation of American Scientists

    Seminar - Open to the Public

    The Emerging Nuclear Era: Implications for Strategy and Policy

    Mon., May 4, 2020 | 12:00pm - 1:30pm

    Online

    Speaker: Caitlin Talmadge, Associate Professor of Security Studies, Georgetown University

    A new nuclear era is emerging, defined by the presence of both a competitive relationship among three nuclear-armed great powers—the United States, Russia, and China—as well as multiple regional nuclear competitors. Drawing on international relations theory, strategic nuclear thought, and the historical record, this seminar will examine the potential implications of this emerging nuclear environment for strategy and policy.

    Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar:
    https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsdeuqpjMqE9zGCkAKwECP6lWxsAhaarxP

    This seminar is being held under the auspices of the joint HKS/MIT Program on Strategy, Security, and Statecraft.

  •  Mother Of All Battles Mosque secured by 1-15th Infantry Regiment of 3rd Brigade 3rd Infantry Division on 13 April 2003 in North Western Baghdad.

    DoD/SGT Igor Paustovski

    Seminar - Open to the Public

    Desert Shield of the Republic? Realism and the Middle East

    Mon., Apr. 1, 2019 | 4:15pm - 6:00pm

    Littauer Building - Malkin Penthouse, 4th Floor

    Speaker: Patrick Porter, Professor of International Security and Strategy, University of Birmingham

    How should political realists view the United States' role in the Middle East? Political realists disagree on what America should "do" and "be" in the Middle East. They are united in their scepticism towards extravagant geopolitical projects such as the "Global War on Terror" and attempts to transform the region along democratic, capitalist lines. Yet they divide over other fundamental questions: how important is the Middle East to U.S. national interests? Is America's patronage of Israel and the Saudi bloc prudent? What military posture is needed, if any, and for what purpose? This seminar offers a genealogy of these intramural arguments within realism, in order to surface the disagreements and evaluate the choices they offer. The speaker identifies two strands: "primacy" realism, that advocates continued pursuit of hegemony with the United States as an effective stabilizer, and "shield of the republic" realism, which views the region as an unruly place that both entangles and corrupts the republic, involving interests that are either manageable from a remove or only generated by being there in the first place. The speaker makes the case for the second tradition, arguing that the time for abandonment has come.

    Please join us! Coffee, tea, and refreshments provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

    This seminar is being held under the auspices of the joint HKS/MIT Program on Strategy, Security, and Statecraft.

  • Seminar - Open to the Public

    The Illiberal Disruption: Temporary Detour or Historical Turning Point?

    Wed., Nov. 14, 2018 | 5:00pm - 6:30pm

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    Speaker: Charles Kupchan, Professor of International Affairs, School of Foreign Service and Government Department, Georgetown University; Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

    Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Speaker Series, co-sponsored with MIT's Security Studies Program

    Location: MIT Building 66, Room 110

    Everyone is welcome! Please join us!

  • This map shows the traditional locations of "First World" (blue), "Second World" (red), and "Third World" (green) countries during the Cold War.

    Wikimedia Commons

    Seminar - Open to the Public

    Diplomacy: A Rusting Tool of American Statecraft

    Thu., Feb. 15, 2018 | 4:15pm - 6:00pm

    Belfer Building - Bell Hall, 5th Floor

    Speaker: Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr., Senior Fellow, Watson Center for International and Public Affairs, Brown University

    This seminar will explore the nature of diplomacy and its strategic, tactical, and risk management roles in American statecraft. Case studies to be discussed include those of U.S. Cold War diplomacy in southern Africa and on the Taiwan issue as well as examples from European history, the Middle East, and elsewhere.

    Please join us! Coffee, tea, and refreshments provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

    This seminar is being held under the auspices of the joint HKS/MIT Program on Strategy, Security, and Statecraft.