373 Items

U.S. President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He after being given a letter in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. China's trade with the United States fell by double digits again in September amid a tariff war that threatens to tip the global economy into recession.

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Analysis & Opinions - The New York Times

Former World Leaders: The Trade War Threatens the World’s Economy

| Oct. 11, 2019

President Trump announced on Friday a preliminary trade détente with China, saying that the two countries have a verbal agreement for an initial phase of a deal. The agreement reportedly includes concessions from China to protect American intellectual property, to accept guidelines on managing its currency and to buy tens of billions worth of American agricultural products. Washington, for its part, will not go through next month with placing more tariffs on Chinese products.

- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center Newsletter

Celebrating Calestous Juma

| Spring 2018

Calestous Juma died on December 15 following a long battle with cancer. He was Professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and Globalization Project. He also directed the Center’s Agricultural Innovation Policy in Africa and Health Innovation Policy in Africa projects, and he taught highly popular executive education courses on innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.

View of General Assembly at UN Global Engagement Summit

UN Photo

Discussion Paper - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Exponential Innovation and Human Rights

| Feb. 27, 2018

Technological innovation and the politics of global justice are two fields that interact quite extensively in international diplomatic discourse and public debate. Controversial issues, such as accessing essential medicines, reducing greenhouse gases, conserving biological diversity, providing clean energy, and expanding the adoption of green technologies, require answers at the intersection of technological innovation, international diplomacy, and global justice. Our approach is to start off with the broader understanding that justice is rights-based and then proceed to analyze it using a goal-based framework. This brings into sharp focus the relationships between innovation and human rights.

Nov. 23, 2016, a train returns from transporting ballast used in the construction of the Nairobi-Mombasa railway

AP Photo/Ben Curtis

Discussion Paper - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

African Regional Economic Integration

| Winter 2018

The power of Pan-Africanism as a guiding vision for the continent’s development is widely studied, mostly as an aspirational phenomenon. At worst, Pan-Africanism has often been seen as a poor imitation of American federalism or European integration. Both of these perceptions do not reflect the profound nature of the role that the ideology of Pan-Africanism played in shaping the continent’s economic transformation. 

Magazine Article - The Economist

Seeds of Change: Calestous Juma died on December 15th

| Jan. 11, 2018

Colleagues said he tweeted more than any professor they knew, and Calestous Juma’s tweets covered a swarm of things. Income inequality, and a free-trade area for Africa, you might expect. Those were the subjects he taught at Harvard: getting poorer countries, especially in Africa, to grow and thrive was the obsession of his life. But he also tweeted about a wheelchair that could climb stairs, the increasing size of steaks, and the maximum number of goats seen eating up in a tree. He was extra-delighted to send out a New York Times editorial, from 1878, about Thomas Edison’s new “aerophone”: “Something ought to be done about Mr Edison, and there is a growing conviction that it had better be done with a hemp rope.”

Calestous Juma

Martha Stewart/HKS

Newspaper Article - The Boston Globe

Calestous Juma, 64, Champion of Sustainable International Development

    Author:
  • Bryan Marquard
| Dec. 22, 2017

A professor of the practice of international development, and a writer of great range, Calestous Juma promoted technology for the poor and vulnerable throughout the world. He also wrote a book explaining why people are wary of innovation, and delighted his more than 100,000 Twitter followers by retweeting cartoons that ribbed those who are resistant to science.

Photo of Calestous Juma in his office.

Martha Stewart

News - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Remembering Our Colleague Professor Calestous Juma

Our colleague Calestous Juma—who passed away on December 15 at age 64 after a long illness—was a pioneering, prolific, and influential scholar/practitioner in science and technology policy for sustainable well-being. He joined Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in 1999 as Director of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Project (a joint venture of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Center for International Development) and became Professor of the Practice of International Development in 2002, a position in which he maintained his exceptional productivity and engagement with policy, despite illness, up to the time of his death.

Calestous Juma

Martha Stewart

News - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Remembering Calestous Juma

| Dec. 15, 2017

To ministers and heads of state, he was a sought-after adviser, pointing the way toward reforms that boosted farm yields, educational standards, and economic prosperity. To the scientific community, he was an unstinting champion of innovation and rigorous evidence. To his students, he was a passionate teacher and mentor. To thousands of his fans on social media, he was a fount of insight, optimism, and good humor. To us, he was a dear friend and extraordinary colleague.