Please join the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship for a discussion with Daniela Schwarzer, Senior Fellow with the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship and Executive Director for Europe and Eurasia at the Open Society Foundations, on the European Union’s most recent attempts to become a more strategic actor on the global stage. From a European perspective, the Biden administration offers a great opportunity to rethink and relaunch the transatlantic relationship and to partner with the U.S. in strengthening multilateralism. However, the EU still punches below its weight in international affairs and defining its strategy towards China is its most important challenge in context.

This seminar will explore the most recent steps that the European Union has made to enhance its international role as well as the state of EU-China relations. As much depends on member state developments in the European Union, the seminar will also address the upcoming elections in Germany and France. Faculty Chair, Nicholas Burns will moderate this discussion.

In the third installment of the Future of Cultural Diplomacy Series, UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay will offer her unique perspective on cultural diplomacy as the leader of one of the world’s largest multilateral agencies focused on education, science, and cultural issues. Director-General Azoulay will discuss UNESCO’s current priorities, including education, culture, gender equality, and freedom of expression, and how UNESCO has provided multilateral approaches to crises stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. Carla Dirlikov Canales, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow and Arts Envoy for the U.S. Department of State, and Alison Hillegeist, Deputy Director for the Future of Diplomacy Project will moderate this discussion.

The Future of Cultural Diplomacy seminar series explores how to harness culture to advance foreign policy objectives.  This series aims to address an important but often overlooked angle in current foreign policy debates, as well as add a valuable dimension to co-curricular discussions in international affairs at Harvard. This series was conceptualized by Carla Dirlikov Canales, an Arts Envoy for the U.S. Department of State, a world-renowned opera singer, and current Fellow at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative.

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project for a conversation with Julie Bishop, Fisher Family Fellow and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, about China and Australia’s relationship, the increasing geopolitical role of the Quad, and how U.S. foreign policy should respond to China's rise. Research Director, Torrey Taussig will moderate this discussion.

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project and the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship for a conversation with Lord Peter Ricketts, former Fisher Family Fellow (2018-19), UK Ambassador to France (2012-2016), and UK National Security Adviser (2010-2012), on his new book Hard Choices: What Britain Does Next about the difficult decisions facing all Western countries - and Britain in particular - as they adapt to a more complex and fractured international order. Faculty Chair Nicholas Burns will moderate this discussion.

German foreign policy faces profound challenges in 2021: Strengthening relations with the United States, navigating a complex relationship with China, working to ensure full post-COVID economic recovery in Europe and contributing to strengthening the European Union in the first full year following the UK exit from the Union – all while the 16-year political leadership of Angela Merkel as Chancellor comes to its end in September with a national election already dominating headlines. Germany’s Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Emily Haber, will discuss the future of the transatlantic and the German-American relationship with respect to key geopolitical and geo-economic questions facing her country in a critical election year. Faculty Chair, Nicholas Burns, will introduce the event and Executive Director, Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, will moderate.

This event is part of the series  “Meeting America,” the first of several virtual talks with the German Ambassador and American stakeholders across the United States.

This event is co-sponsored by the Eric M. Warburg Boston Chapter of the American Council on Germany.

For more information, please visit the Wunderbar Together Event Calendar Information Page.

Ambassador Nicholas Burns will host a conversation with Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee about key challenges and opportunities that the U.S. is facing on the global stage. They will also discuss Congressman Meeks’ efforts to promote greater diversity and inclusion in the State Department.

Gregory W. Meeks represents New York’s 5th district in the United States Congress, serves as Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee. Currently serving his 12th term in Congress, Rep. Meeks is a multilateralist with decades of experience in foreign policy. His district includes Southeast Queens and parts of Nassau County.

Attendance at this event is limited to Harvard affiliates only.  A valid Harvard email will be required to register. This event is off the record. 

The extension of New START – the last remaining treaty limiting U.S. and Russian nuclear forces -- sustains verifiable limits on Russian nuclear weapons that can reach the United States for the next five years.  Can that time be used to negotiate a follow-on accord that serves both sides interests?  With the collapse of the INF Treaty following Russian cheating and U.S. withdrawal, what can be done to address threats to U.S. and Russian security posed by INF-range missiles?  What other key issues need to be addressed in strategic stability talks – with Russia, with China, or with others?  How can the world community best address the danger of nuclear proliferation – especially when ongoing nuclear modernization in all of the nuclear-armed states is adding to long-standing tensions between nuclear haves and have-nots?  Could the United States and Russia revive their past cooperation to control proliferation and prevent nuclear terrorism? Given the challenging relationship between Russia and the United States, Russia’s violations of some arms control agreements, its annexation of Crimea and military and cyber incursions and provocations along its border and beyond – and Russia’s equally long list of complaints about the United States – what might strategic arms diplomacy look like in the future? How can the proposed U.S.-Russia Summit advance arms control, nonproliferation, and a broader working relationship between the two countries?

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project (FDP) and the Project on Europe and the Transatlantic (PETR) relationship for a conversation with former NATO Deputy Secretary General, Rose Gottemoeller, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Matthew Bunn, and FDP Senior Fellows, Ambassadors Paula Dobriansky and Doug Lute, moderated by Faculty Chair, Nicholas Burns. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Project on Managing the Atom and by Russia Matters.

In a conversation with Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, we will explore how she employed cultural diplomacy while serving as U.S. Ambassador to Japan (2013-2017), our key ally in Asia. Ambassador (ret.) Nicholas Burns, Harvard Kennedy School professor and Faculty Chair of the Future of Diplomacy Project, will welcome and introduce Ambassador Kennedy. He and Carla Dirlikov Canales, 2021 Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow, will co-moderate the discussion. Dr. Joe Nye, University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus at Harvard and who introduced the world to the concept of "soft power" in the late 1980s, will also be part of our discussion.

Caroline Kennedy is an attorney and the author and editor of eleven books on law, civics, and poetry.  She worked for ten years with the NYC Department of Education before serving US Ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017. She is the Founder of the International Poetry Exchange Program which brings together students from Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and NYC and serves on the boards of the US-Japan Foundation, the Praemium Imperiale, the Carnegie Corporation, and the International Rescue Committee.

Please join the Future of Diplomacy Project, the Center for Public Leadership, and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University for a conversation with Shivshankar Menon, former National Security Advisor and Foreign Secretary of India, about his new book on India's foreign policy entitled India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present. Mr. Menon will discuss India’s historical responses to the rise of China, in addition to other regional powers as well as analyze how India’s policies are likely to evolve in the future to address current and new challenges. Faculty Chair, Nicholas Burns will moderate this discussion.

Please join us for the inaugural event of the Future of Cultural Diplomacy seminar series co-sponsored by Carla Dirlikov Canales, 2021 Fellow at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative and the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School.

Nancy Szalwinski, Director of Cultural Programs, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, and Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Goodman Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard Kennedy School will discuss ways in which cultural diplomacy can play a significant role in furthering U.S. foreign policy objectives and the Biden administration’s promise to “restore America’s global standing.”  The conversation will focus on current cultural diplomacy priorities for the United States and how changing technologies, geopolitical trends, and recent events have led to new approaches, initiatives, and challenges.  Carla Dirlikov Canales will moderate the discussion.

The Future of Cultural Diplomacy seminar series will explore how to harness culture to advance foreign policy objectives.  This series will aim to address an important but often overlooked angle in current foreign policy debates, as well as add a valuable dimension to co-curricular discussions in international affairs at Harvard. This series was conceptualized by Carla Dirlikov Canales, an Arts Envoy for the U.S. Department of State, a world-renowned opera singer, and current Fellow at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative.