Belfer in Brief

Gift Deepens Engagement with Middle East

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) announced in October a gift of $15 million from the government of the United Arab Emirates to establish the Emirates Leadership Initiative. The five-year program will deepen HKS engagement with the people and countries of the Middle East through an array of new leadership, research, executive education, and fellowship programs.

A collaboration with the Belfer Center's Middle East Initiative and the Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership, the program will be composed of four elements: fellowships for up to 10 exceptional graduate students from the Arab world to study at HKS, a major research initiative focused on the Middle East, executive education for senior officials from the region, and a  policy-focused field visit to the UAE for Harvard Kennedy School students.

Understanding the Past to Secure the Future

Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow Jayita Sarkar and International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom Predoctoral Fellow Se Young Jang took part in a "Stanford Nuclear Bootcamp," in September, aimed at building a new generation of experts on the international history of nuclear weapons. Invited by former Secretary of State George Shultz and former Secretary of Defense William Perry, they were hosted by Stanford University's CISAC and the Hoover Institution.

Reducing Risks at the Intersection of Innovative Energy and Cybersecurity

Ryan Ellis, postdoctoral research fellow with the Center's Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program and its Cyber Project, and Nidhi Santen, project manager for the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, are launching a new collaborative ETIP–Cyber Project that looks at the intersection of cybersecurity and electricity systems. Emerging distributed electricity systems for innovations like electric vehicles and rooftop solar PV pose a unique public policy problem from the perspective of cybersecurity risk. The new project will attempt to find ways to reduce these risks.

Welcoming a New Generation

The Belfer Center happily welcomes three brand new members of the community: Rafael, son of Laura Diaz Anadon and her husband, Jeff; Anabel Rose, daughter of Simone O'Hanlon and her husband, Mike; and Kaavya, daughter of Jaganath Sankaran and his wife, Mahi.