Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project and Harvard Kennedy School’s Ukraine Caucus for a conversation with Dmytro Kuleba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, who will be joining virtually. The discussion will be moderated by Belfer Center Co-Director Eric Rosenbach and Ambassador Paula Dobriansky (PhD '91), a Senior Fellow at the Future of Diplomacy Project.

In person attendance is limited to Harvard ID holders only. Space is limited. RSVP here.

Virtual attendance is open to the public. Register here.

Please join National Security Fellows LtCol Richard Neikirk and Mr. Ryan Canady for a seminar with special guest General Eric Smith, the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. 

This event is a part of the Defense Project Speaker Series, in which National Security Fellows invite speakers to co-present with them on pressing national security issues. 

Harvard staff, students, and faculty are welcome to attend this event in person. The public is welcome to attend this event virtually. 

Light refreshments will be provided. 

The Belfer Center's Asia-Pacific Initiative and Defense Project will host a Director's Seminar with John C. Demers, former Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice. The conversation will be moderated by Eric Rosenbach, Co-Director of the Belfer Center, and Chris Li, Director of Research for the Asia-Pacific Initiative.

Advance registration is required, and attendance is limited to current Harvard affiliates (students, staff, faculty, fellows).

You are permitted to attend only if you receive an email confirmation. 

As part of their seminar series, National Security Fellows Steven Cooper and Brian Eno will be joined by Chief Master Sergeant Geoffrey P. Ikert to discuss the tactical implications of policy decisions in high stress scenarios. The attempted rescue of Luke Somers from Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen will be used as an example to discuss this topic.

Come meet the 2022-2023 National Security Fellows and learn about their plans for the academic year, including the revamping of the For the Common Defense sessions and the Defense Project Seminar Series. 

Light refreshments will be provided and we welcome suggestions for upcoming event topics. 

This event will take place in the Quad Courtyard.

Please RSVP here.

Please join the Belfer Center’s Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and Defense Project for a seminar on the current European security landscape with Janne Kuusela, Defense Policy Director of Finland. Mr. Kuusela will discuss Finland’s recent NATO bid, security challenges for Northern Europe, the future of European defense cooperation and its implications for the transatlantic relationship. Professor Eric Rosenbach, co-Director of the Belfer Center, will moderate the discussion.

This event will be hybrid.

Please join the State Department’s Learning Agenda launch, hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.    

The Learning Agenda is an unprecedented effort by the Department to institutionalize evidence-based learning and implement the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (“Evidence Act”).  The Evidence Act requires federal agencies to develop a “learning agenda” – a systematic plan to answer a set of policy-relevant questions critical to achieving the agency’s strategic objectives.  It will guide the Department’s efforts over the next four years across eight questions to increase the impact of U.S. foreign policy and bolster the Secretary of State’s modernization efforts. The event will feature a keynote address followed by a panel of foreign policy and evidence-building experts for a thoughtful discussion on addressing Learning Agenda Questions 1 and 2:   

1. How can the State Department improve the effectiveness of its diplomatic interventions to better advance foreign policy objectives?   

2. How can the Department improve the effectiveness and sustainability of its foreign assistance efforts? 

Keynote Speaker: Ambassador Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.   

Panel to include: 

• Barbara Bodine, Director and Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy of the Georgetown University Institute for the Study of Diplomacy  
• David Connolly, Director of Learning, Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Institute of Peace
• Eric Rosenbach, Co-Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School 
• Douglas Pitkin, Director of the Bureau of Budget & Planning (BP) at the U.S. Department of State (Closing Remarks)
• Dafna Rand, Director of the Office of Foreign Assistance (F) at the U.S. Department of State  (moderator)

Click here to see the full event video and thoughts from the panelists »

In honor of Black History Month, please join the Belfer Center and DK Metcalf, Seattle Seahawks; Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., Argo Temple Church of God in Christ; Kevin Merida, Senior VP and Editor-in Chief, ESPN, “The Undefeated”  and Khalil Gibran Muhammad, HKS Professor. This panel will be moderated by HKS MPP candidate Ratna Gill, a communications consultant with the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and Eric Rosenbach, Co-Director, Belfer Center.

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf recently announced that for the month of February, he would be using his social media presence to tell the story of Emmett Till, in honor of Black History Month. Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black boy who was murdered in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman. This panel will discuss the significance of truth-telling and the reconciliation that can result from the acknowledgment of this country's racialized history. Participants will learn about actions that each of us can take to ensure that we are engaging in critical conversations about race and justice, not just during this month but every day.

This event is co-sponsored with the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project at the Shorenstein Center and the Black Student Union.

While this virtual event is on the record, the event organizers prohibit any attendees, including journalists, from audio/visual recording or distributing parts or all of the event program without prior written authorization.

Registration is mandatory for this webinar. 

Join the Economic Diplomacy Initiative (EDI) for a conversation with Roland Cloutier, Global Chief  Security Officer at TikTok. Cloutier will discuss how TikTok's data, cybersecurity, and Chinese ownership have emerged as focal issues for U.S. companies and policymakers alike. The discussion will be jointly moderated by Eric Rosenbach, Co-Director of the Belfer Center, and Aditi Kumar, Executive Director of the Belfer Center.

Join the Cyber Project and the Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P) as we convene tech, government, health, and policy experts in an important discussion on the federal government's efforts to work with tech companies and academia in using citizen data to track and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. 

Our main question: How do we get this right--to save lives and preserve privacy and security?

We will use this discussion to generate policy recommendations for the relevant task force working on this issue within the federal government. 

The Working Group will feature experts from Harvard Kennedy School, the Belfer Center, and MIT*

The Honorable Sue Gordon                    Eric Rosenbach

Juliette Kayyem                                         Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux

Jim Waldo                                                   Bruce Schneier

Alex Stamos                                                Kathy Pham

Robby Mook                                               Dr. Marc Zissman

Andrew McLaughlin, J.D.                       Jonathan Zittrain

*Working group still in formation.  Please see full titles of Working Group Members in tab below