Governance

33 Items

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Testimony

House Democracy Partnership Commission Hearing

| Dec. 01, 2021

The House Democracy Partnership Commission held a hearing on the role of independent and constituent-driven legislatures and the importance of legislative strengthening efforts. Parliaments have a key role to play in promoting and advancing good governance, the sharing of best practices, and collaborating with their peers. Bodies such as the House Democracy Partnership can be formidable tools for parliaments to engage with one other and become valuable fora for strengthening democratic institutions and deepening bilateral relations.

Houses of Parliament

Wikimedia CC/Arpingstone

Testimony

Written Evidence Submitted to the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee

| June 27, 2020

Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow William James submitted written evidence to the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee for its inquiry into the government's forthcoming Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.

In this March 27, 2019, file photo, vials of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine sit in a cooler at the Rockland County Health Department in Pomona, N.Y.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File

Testimony

Testimony of Juliette Kayyem Before the Members of the Joint Committee on Public Health

| Dec. 03, 2019

Juliette Kayyem writes that there are challenges our children face in this world. One of the risks they do not face — because science and medicine have found a cure — is a public health pandemic of diseases that used to kill our most vulnerable and youngest. 

Nicholas Burns testifies before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on possible Russian interference in European elections

CSPAN

Testimony

Senate Testimony: Russian Interference in European Elections

| June 28, 2017

On June 28, Nicholas Burns testified before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on Russian interference in European elections. He called President Trump's response to Russia's cyber attacks on the U.S. democratic system both "dismaying and objectionable." He says it's the "president's duty to be skeptical of Russia and that his refusal to take action is "a dereliction of his basic duty to defend the country."

Protesters gather at the "Today, I Am A Muslim, Too" rally to protest against a planned congressional hearing on the role of Muslims in homegrown terrorism, March 6, 2011 in New York.

AP Photo

Policy Brief - Quarterly Journal: International Security

The Exaggerated Threat of American Muslim "Homegrown" Terrorism

    Author:
  • Risa Brooks
| December 14, 2011

"...[I]nflating the terrorist threat could alienate Muslim communities in the United States. This would be a worrisome development, because those communities’ widespread rejection of terrorism and their ongoing willingness to expose suspected militants are two reasons why the homegrown threat remains small."

California Air Resources Board voting to adopt sweeping clean air regulations in Sacramento, Dec. 16, 2010. The new rules set up the nation's most extensive carbon trading market that will provide a financial incentive to cut emissions.

AP Photo

Policy Brief - UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development

The National Context of U.S. State Policies for a Global Commons Problem

| November 2011

In this policy brief, Harvard Project Director Robert Stavins focuses on how subnational policies will interact with a federal climate policy. It turns out that some of the interactions will be problematic, others will be benign, and still others could be positive. He also examines the role that could be played by subnational policies in the absence of a meaningful federal policy, with the conclusion that—like it or not—we may find that Sacramento, California comes to take the place of Washington as the center of national climate policy. This case study might provide insight for COP 17 delegates in designing the next steps toward a flexible international agreement.

South Africa's Minister of International Relations & Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabaneat at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, July 3, 2011. International delegations met for 2 days to prepare the upcoming UN climate conference in Durban.

AP Photo

Policy Brief - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Belfer Center

Whither the Kyoto Protocol? Durban and Beyond

    Author:
  • Daniel Bodansky
| August 2011

The Kyoto Protocol establishes a very complex and ambitious regime, in architecture if not stringency. The problem is that relatively few states, representing only about a quarter of the world's emissions, have been willing to assume emission targets under Kyoto....The future of the Protocol thus seems doubtful at best. Even in the most optimistic scenario, a new round of emissions targets couldn't be agreed in time to prevent a legal gap between the first and second commitment periods. A possible middle ground would be to establish a transitional regime that would be political in nature, but that could evolve over time into a legally-binding regime.

In this March 8, 2011 photo, Joseph Dzindwa, who has expanded from a one-hectare to an eight-hectare maize farm in the last few years, checks his hybrid maize crop in Catandica, Mozambique.

AP Photo

Testimony

Agricultural Biotechnology: Benefits, Opportunities, and Leadership

| June 23, 2011

"The United States has been a leading light in agricultural biotechnology as a platform technology and continues to serve as an important role model for countries around the seeking to address global food challenges. A key source of this leadership has been its commitment to using a science-led regulatory system for determining the approval of new products. The rest of the world needs this demonstrated leadership now more than ever given rising food prices and related political unrests around the world. Failure on the part of the United States to champion agricultural biotechnology will undermine confidence in the ability of the global community to confront the challenges of food security. Retracting from using science and technology to address emerging challenges will not result in any savings; it will only defer problems and future costs are likely to be higher."

Gen. David Petraeus, left, coalition forces commander in Afghanistan, and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates at his arrival in Kabul, Mar. 7, 2011. Gates began a 2-day visit to gauge war progress as the Obama administration ponders troop level reductions

AP Photo

Policy Brief - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Resurrecting Retrenchment: The Grand Strategic Consequences of U.S. Decline

| May 2011

"Husbanding resources is simply sensible. In the competitive game of power politics, states must unsentimentally realign means with ends or be punished for their profligacy. Attempts to maintain policies advanced when U.S. relative power was greater are outdated, unfounded, and imprudent. Retrenchment policies—greater burden sharing with allies, less military spending, and less involvement in militarized disputes—hold the most promise for arresting and reversing decline."

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, left, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger shake hands as they display an agreement they signed to fight climate change in Vancouver, May 31, 2007.

AP Photo

Policy Brief - Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Belfer Center

AB 32 and Climate Change: The National Context of State Policies for a Global Commons Problem

| February 2011

"...[B]ottom-up linkage of state and regional cap-and-trade systems could be an important part, or perhaps even the core, of future of U.S. climate policy, at least until there is meaningful action at the federal level. In the meantime, it is at least conceivable—and perhaps likely—that linkage of state-level cap-and-trade systems will become the (interim) de facto national climate policy architecture."