Events

Please join the Belfer Center’s Applied History Project for a session with John Bew, Special Assistant to the British Prime Minister for Foreign Policy and Defense and Professor of History at King’s College London, moderated by Fredrik Logevall, Belfer Professor of International Affairs at HKS. The pair will discuss Dr. Bew’s review of the United Kingdom’s national security strategy before taking questions from the audience. This session is open to all HUID holders and will serve light refreshments.

Speaker: Lt. Col. Charles Bursi, Research Fellow, International Security Program

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's August 2022 trip to Taiwan made headlines around the world because she was the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit in decades. Her trip to this small democratic island only 100 miles from Communist China set off a firestorm of internal debates on U.S. East Asia strategy (New Yorker link). Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials trumpeted their frustration with the United States' incoherent diplomacy and launched aggressive military exercises in the Taiwan Strait. Ultimately, Pelosi's visit brought focus to the value of Taiwan in U.S. domestic and foreign policy.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAlc-iqqzorGNYnXhuQt8-rznQ1v7nnlvBW

Over the past decade, ‘deepfakes’ have increased in prevalence across the media landscape and social platforms. Individuals, non-state actors, and organizations utilize technology in coordinated efforts to influence specific events, policies, and even market conditions. Furthermore, these dynamics have not been limited to governments or large organizations. The proliferation of technology and capabilities have empowered individuals and smaller groups with tools traditionally reserved for large actors, leading to equally disruptive outcomes.

What is real? What is manipulated? How do democracies safeguard against misinformation or disinformation campaigns? How do we as individuals navigate this challenging information environment? Please join The Intelligence Project and a distinguished panel of experts as we grapple with these questions and others to better understand deepfakes across society. This virtual event will be moderated by Michael Miner, Acting Manager of the Intelligence Project, and will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, from 12:15pm ET to 1:3opm ET.

This virtual event is on the record and is open to the public. Registration is required. Please register using the RSVP button below.

Russia’s preparation for malicious cyber activities began long before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In fact, one could argue that preparations and operations have been executing for more than a decade. 

Please join the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program for an AI Cyber Lunch Seminar featuring Melissa Hathaway, President of Hathaway Global Strategies and former Senior Advisor to the Belfer Center's Cyber Project. In a talk entitled "Malicious Cyber Activities: Russia-Ukraine and the Surrounding Territories," Hathaway will discuss how Russia has honed its precision operations through a sophisticated execution and conquer of targets and access.

Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: In-person attendance is limited to current Harvard ID holders. No RSVP is required. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis.

Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: Please be advised that this seminar will not be recorded.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Please join the Defense Project for Pizza and Pints with the NSFs: U.S. Military Reserve "Citizen Soldiers" in the David T. Ellwood Democracy Lab (R-414-AB) on Tuesday, March 21st between 3:00 - 4:00pm. Refreshments will be served.

Attendance is limited to Harvard ID holders only. Please RSVP here. 

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Investment Security Paul Rosen will speak to the evolution of economic tools to protect national security, in particular the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Rosen will discuss how CFIUS conceptualizes risk, the most frequently identified national security risks in CFIUS cases, the importance of maintaining technological leadership in areas such as semiconductors and AI, and how CFIUS works with allies to promote investment security across borders. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session and will address the Treasury hiring process and work opportunities for HKS graduates. Presented by the Homeland Security Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

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Paul Rosen serves as the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Investment Security.  Nominated by the President and confirmed with bipartisan support by the United States Senate on May 23, 2022, Mr. Rosen leads all operations and activities of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the interagency Committee authorized by Congress to review certain foreign investment into U.S. businesses for national security risks.  He oversees the review of hundreds of transaction filings each year often amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars in investment activity and is responsible for managing the Committee’s recommendations to the President to suspend or prohibit transactions that threaten to impair the national security of the United States.  He also guides the Committee’s policy and international relations activities as well as the monitoring, compliance and enforcement of national security agreements executed to mitigate national security risk.​

Join us for an Energy Policy Seminar featuring James Stock, Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and member of the faculty at Harvard Kennedy School. Stock will give a talk on "What’s Up with Natural Gas Prices? The Climate Implications of U.S. LNG Facilities." Q&A to follow. Buffet-style lunch will be served.

Registration: No RSVP is required. Room capacity is limited and seating will be on a first come, first served basis. The seminar will also be streamed via Zoom. Virtual attendees should register using the button below; upon registering, attendees will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link. 

Recording: The seminar will be recorded and available to watch on this page (typically one week later). Those who register for this event will automatically receive a link to the recording as soon as it becomes available.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Sponsors: The Belfer Center's Environment and Natural Resources Program, the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability

The global nuclear order that comprises nuclear deterrence, nonproliferation, and disarmament is often viewed as discriminatory and increasingly castigated as unjust. Few states got to develop and deploy nuclear weapons in the name of their own security and that of their allies. Most are prohibited from doing so by the international nonproliferation regime. All stand to lose if a nuclear exchange takes place. Russia’s war against Ukraine underscored the inequities and injustices in the global nuclear order built on hierarchical spheres of (in)security. How to define injustice in nuclear affairs? How sustainable is an unjust global nuclear order? At what cost can it be maintained in its present form, and how can it be long tolerated by the future generations? The panel brings together scholars to critically reflect on past, ongoing, and future nuclear injustices – in the context of the war in Ukraine and beyond – to assess the main tensions and pave the way for a research agenda beyond the usual boundaries of the nuclear policy field and community.

Speaker: Nate Grau, Ernest May Fellow in History & Policy, International Security Program

This seminar traces the evolution of France's Cold War counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine from the Second World War to France's 1954 defeat in Indochina. Grau reveals the underappreciated roles of civilian colonial reformers in this process, tracing a network of "Free French" policymakers circulating from Algeria to the French wars in Madagascar (1947–1948) and Indochina (1945–1954). In each of these revolutionary independence struggles, reformist plans to encourage economic growth and develop local state capacity became tools of counterinsurgent repression that only escalated inter-communal cycles of violence.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Please register in advance for this seminar: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAud-qurjkpE9LULcdi7fEzEUmflmTOWvYC

About the series: The Diversity in STEM series developed and moderated by Dr. Syra Madad highlights leaders in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). The aim of the series is to recognize the diversity in STEM and highlight various accomplishments and contributions by leaders in STEM fields while educating and empowering the youth, providing valuable advice, and sharing pearls of wisdom.

 Join Belfer Fellow Dr. Syra Madad, Dr. Chethan Sathya and Joshua Horwitz with an introduction from Belfer Student Fellow Muska Fazilat to discuss gun violence being a public health issue.

While this virtual event is on the record, the event organizers prohibit any attendees, including journalists, from audio/visual recording or distributing parts or all of the event program without prior written authorization.