Events

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with General Glen VanHerck, Commander of NORAD and USNORTHCOM. General VanHerck will join us virtually to discuss homeland defense in the context of today’s dynamic strategic environment, as well as address the necessary steps to ensuring security for the United States and its interests. Ambassador Paula Dobriansky, Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project, will moderate.

This event will be in-person only and limited to Harvard ID holders. 

Please join the Belfer Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project and Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship for a seminar on the current European security landscape with Audra Plepytė, Ambassador of Lithuania to the US; Kristjan Prikk, Ambassador of Estonia to the U.S., and Māris Selga, Ambassador of Latvia to the U.S. The Ambassadors will discuss how Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine has affected transatlantic and regional security as well as increasing threats to critical infrastructure in the Baltic states. This conversation will be moderated by Ambassador Paula Dobriansky, Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project.

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with Erika Mouynes, Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard and former Foreign Minister of Panama; Ambassador P. Michael McKinley, former U.S. Ambassador to Peru, Brazil, Afghanistan, and Colombia; Ambassador Paula Dobriansky, Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project and former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, on the role of Latin America in today's shifting international order. While most countries in Latin America voted in favor of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, and others refuse to join sanctions against Russia or give aid to Ukraine. What does the future of the Western Hemisphere look like in a time of increasing global competition and great power conflict? Negah Angha, Institute of Politics Fellow and former Director for Multilateral Initiatives at the National Security Council, will moderate.

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with Desirée Cormier Smith, the State Department’s first ever Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice.  While the communities that the Special Representative's mandate serves are specific - marginalized racial, ethnic, and Indigenous peoples, including people of African descent - the Special Representative believes, as Maya Angelou put it, none of us is free until all of us are free.  In honor of International Women's Day and U.S. Women's History Month, the Special Representative brings forth an important conversation about intersectionality - where one person's multiple or intersecting identities might subject them to varying forms of racism, discrimination, violence, or xenophobia - to remind us that our collective liberation rests on the shoulders of one another; to acknowledge that it takes a community of us who #EmbraceEquity, a village of us to secure freedom for all. Erika Manouselis, Manager of the Future of Diplomacy Project, will moderate.

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with Ivan Duque who served as President of Colombia from 2018 to 2022. President Duque will discuss three major trends affecting Latin American countries: defending and promoting democratic values; addressing the climate crisis and protecting biodiversity; and developing compassionate and sensible migration policies. This event will be moderated by Ambassador Paula Dobriansky, Senior Fellow at the Future of Diplomacy Project.

In-Person Registration (HARVARD ID ONLY)     Zoom Registration (OPEN TO THE PUBLIC)

Please note that in-person attendance is limited to Harvard affiliates only and space is limited.

Please join the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with Diego Tituaña, Kichwa Otavalo diplomat from Ecuador who served at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations (2014-2019) for a discussion on the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples' rights at global platforms, and how these initiatives seek to strengthen identity and Indigenous traditional knowledge while combating discrimination and legacies of coloniality.

Mr. Tituaña will be joined by Pamela Klassen, William Lyon MacKenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies at Harvard University, and Amy E. Chalán, Kichwa Saraguro student at Harvard College. The program will be moderated by Américo Mendoza–Mori, Lecturer in Latinx Studies, Faculty Director, Latinx Studies Working Group, Harvard University. 

Please join the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship for a discussion with Jan Havranek, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the Czech Republic to the U.S. and former Deputy Defense Minister of the Czech Republic, on the crucial role that Central and Eastern Europe play in NATO’s long-term stability. With Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, the transatlantic alliance has solidified its position and strengthened its eastern border. Yet many questions remain in relation to the long-term sustainability of the alliance’s Russia resistance. Mr. Havranek will discuss NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept as well as the Alliance’s most pressing regional issues as a response to Russia’s war against Ukraine. This conversation will be moderated by Ilya Timtchenko, Belfer Young Leader Student Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project and Intelligence Project (MPP 2023).

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with Nestor Forster Jr., Ambassador of Brazil to the U.S., about the bilateral relationship between the two largest economies and democracies in the Western Hemisphere: Brazil and the United States. Ambassador Forster will discuss the political and economic ties between the two countries in various areas, such as defense cooperation, trade policy, sustainable economic growth, environment, and science and technology. Faculty Chair, Nicholas Burns, will introduce the event. Senior Fellow and former U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon Jr., and Project Coordinator, Erika Manouselis will co-moderate this discussion.

PLEASE NOTE: This seminar will be conducted via Zoom. Please register in advance for this meeting:

https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMsdu6pqTgsGdHwA5myoDMJBfgaXfoIhfKR

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

In recent years, several countries throughout the Americas have increasingly experienced concerning signs of democratic backsliding: Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, Paraguay and Peru have all seen varying degrees of deterioration of their democratic institutions such as independence of the judiciary or the right to free protest. Similarly, the United States, which has long prided itself as a champion of democracy in the region and the world, was shaken by an unprecedented threat to its democracy on January 6 when a mob of insurgents sieged the Capitol building in an attempt to overturn election results. What are the main challenges to democracy in the Western Hemisphere? How are international organizations and foreign policymakers responding to de-democratization in the Americas? What is the role of diplomacy in defending democracy? And what is the role of civil society in reversing these trends?

Speakers: Celso Amorim, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defense, Brazil; Susana Malcorra, Dean, IE School of Global and Public Affairs and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Argentina; Ambassador Thomas Shannon, Senior Fellow, Future of Diplomacy Project, Harvard Kennedy School and Former U.S. Under Secretary of State

Moderated by: Steven Levitsky, Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government, Harvard University

Presented in collaboration with Harvard University's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with Senior Fellow, David Ignatius, columnist for the Washington Post and spy novelist, moderated by Professor Nicholas Burns. Ignatius will address major foreign policy challenges facing President Biden’s new administration such as ending the war in Afghanistan and revitalizing the State Department as he and his national security team seek to “re-engage the world.”

PLEASE NOTE: This seminar will be conducted via Zoom. Please register in advance for this meeting:

https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItc-uhqjsoHN2057DAW9eDP-h96ojgJIwk 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.