Events

The Arctic Resilience Forum will be convened every Wednesday from 11:30am – 1:00pm (Eastern Time) over a series of ten weeks.  The online series will engage the broadest audience possible in conversations about how to build the resilience of Arctic communities and ecosystems across a variety of focus areas. 

The October 28th session is focused on Human Health and Pandemics. The Covid-19 pandemic has been a stress-test for resilience across the Arctic, particularly for the health and wellbeing of Northerners. The results of this test have been uneven – for example the Arctic’s remoteness has been a benefit in some areas, but it has hindered readiness and response in others. Around the region we’ve heard stories of both resilience and vulnerability, but throughout it all the unique strengths of the North show through. This session will focus on what we’ve learned so far and how resilience can best be supported going forward. 

Join us for an Energy Policy Seminar featuring Spencer Dale, Group Chief Economist at BP. Mr. Dale will speak on "What Do (and Don’t) We Know About the Global Energy System in Net Zero?" The seminar will be hosted by HKS Professor Joe Aldy.

Attendance: This event is open to the public and hosted on Zoom. For those who cannot attend live, the seminar will be recorded and available to watch via the EPSS homepage.

Registration: Please RSVP at the link below. Registration will remain open until the event begins.

The United States faces an increasingly complex global security environment, characterized by overt challenges to the free and open international order and the re-emergence of long-term, strategic competition between nations. To meet these challenges, the Air Force is evolving to project unmatched power through the air, space, and cyber domains.  Join four National Security Fellows as they discuss the diverse missions of the United States Air Force and answer your questions on current operating concepts. 

Speaker: Sanne Verschuren, Research Fellow, International Security Program

Rather than assuming convergence in countries' military capabilities, this seminar examines why and how countries decide to develop different weapon capabilities within similar domains of warfare. To answer these questions, this seminar will explore the role of ideas and institutional bargaining in shaping decisions about military technology. This talk will subsequently apply the theory to the development of missile defense in the post–Cold War period.

Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Register in advance for this meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUrcOmtqD0jE9R3_UZriEHVVRxUjR8q8HZs

As the Polar/Arctic Sea Ice recedes, the Arctic is increasingly becoming an arena for great power competition: China is Advancing its Polar Silk Road,” while Russia continues to pursue legal, military and commercial avenues to exploit the geostrategic advantages Arctic waters could offer it in the future. Where for decades the Arctic was described as “high north, low tension,” these realities are forcing a shift in strategic thinking within NATO, particularly among member states adjacent to the Arctic and party to multilateral governance structures in the North, like the Arctic Council, whose parameters don’t address military security questions. Other, non-Arctic actors, including Singapore, Japan and the European Union, alongside key individual members states have also developed their own strategies on the Arctic. In this seminar with former U.S Ambassadors Paula Dobriansky (FDP Senior Fellow), David Balton and former Chair of the Arctic Research Commission and Belfer Center Fellow, Fran Ulmer, we will examine key countries’ economic and national security interests in region; the role of the rule of law in preventing conflict alongside critical questions of governance to balance environmental, economic and security concerns in this expert seminar.

This event is co-sponsored by the Arctic Initiative.

A Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) seminar with Sarah Bidgood, Director of the Eurasia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

The Intelligence Project will host a webinar with Mark Kelton, Former Director of Counterintelligence for the CIA, on Wednesday October 21 from 12:00-1:15pm. 

This event is off-the-record and open to the Harvard Community. Advance registration required. 

The Arctic Resilience Forum will be convened every Wednesday from 11:30am – 1:00pm (Eastern Time) over a series of ten weeks.  The online series will engage the broadest audience possible in conversations about how to build the resilience of Arctic communities and ecosystems across a variety of focus areas. 

The October 21st Session is focused on Renewable Energy. Clean and secure energy is essential for resilient Arctic communities and intrinsically tied to issues such as health, climate, and food. The Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council therefore has made energy a priority and work is ongoing to promote the responsible and sustainable management, use, and development of energy – even in remote communities. 

This session will highlight how energy is being transformative across the Arctic and consider questions such as: What does transition away from diesel look like? What tools are available to support transition? What is the role of policy and how are Indigenous communities leading the way? 

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project for a discussion with Julie Bishop, Fisher Family Fellow and former Minster of Foreign Affairs of Australia, about the critical importance of the international rules based order and rising tension in the Indo-Pacific. This seminar will be moderated by Faculty Chair, Nicholas Burns. 

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

https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYqcuiorj4qG9Pga_Wz0tT-ylu3aSV_Nidp

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

EVENT POSTPONED. Out of respect for the developing news regarding the health of Dr. Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian Negotiator and Head of the Negotiations Affairs Department, and the effect this has on our panelists and attendees, this event has been postponed. We hope to hold this event at a later date. 

Join Dr. Yael Berda, assistant professor of sociology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and joint fellow of MEI and the Future of Diplomacy Project, for a panel with leading Israeli and Palestinian experts and activists on the path to and potential for peace almost 30 years after the Oslo Accords.