Dongsheng Wu has an important role in the development and implementation of China's plans to reduce carbon emissions and, subsequently, climate change. As director of the Department of Climate Change at the Shanxi Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Wu is responsible for developing a greenhouse gas emissions policy for Shanxi, a region with the highest coal production and highest energy intensity in China.

The Summer 2015 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming Center activities, along with research and analysis of critical global issues by members of the Center community. This issue features Decoding the Iran Nuclear Deal, a booklet with facts, pros and cons developed by 12 Center experts and edited by Executive Director Gary Samore.

In this edition, we also highlight the “American Secretaries of State Project,” an exciting initiative of the Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project and Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. Professors Nicholas Burns of Harvard Kennedy School, Robert Mnookin of Harvard Law School, and James Sebenius of Harvard Business School lead the project, which will interview all living secretaries of state about the experiences and insights into great power diplomacy.

More than 2500 years ago, Thucydides, the Athenian historian and general, wrote his history of the Peloponnesian War. In his oft-quoted summary, he concludes: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this inspired in Sparta that made war inevitable.” In a forthcoming article, Graham Allison writes that “the defining question about global order for this generation is whether China and the U.S. can escape Thucydides’ Trap.”

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) doctoral student Daniel Velez Lopez is researching air pollution in Mexico and whether the country is willing to pay the costs to reduce it. HKS student Jennifer Kao is interviewing academics, investors, and government officials working to generate and commercialize clean energy innovations in the United Kingdom.

Ashton B. Carter, a former director of the Belfer Center and professor at Harvard Kennedy School, was confirmed in February as the 25th secretary of defense of the United States. Carter served as deputy secretary of defense from 2011-13 and previously was under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. In earlier administrations, he served in both the Department of Defense and Department of State.

The Spring 2015 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming Center activities, along with research and analysis of critical global issues by members of the Center community. This edition highlights new U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter, former director of the Belfer Center and professor at Harvard Kennedy School. Current Center Director Graham Allison praises Carter for his “rare mix of academic depth and managerial savvy” along with an ability to build consensus. Also in this issue, Allison, Kevin Rudd, Joseph Nye, and Steven Miller weigh in on the future of U.S.-China relations and whether these ruling and rising powers can escape ‘Thucydides’ Trap’ and avoid war in the 21^st century.

And much more.

The Fall/Winter 2014/15 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming activities, research, and analysis by members of the Center community on critical global issues. This edition highlights discussions at the Belfer Center about Iran and its nuclear program. Former U.S. National Security Advisor and Center Senior Fellow Thomas Donilon and former Israeli National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror added their voices to Center debate on this issue during a Harvard Kennedy School forum on a possible deal to prevent development of nuclear weapons in Iran.

In "Stopping ISIL," a number of Belfer Center security experts weigh in on what must be done in the next year to stop the spread and brutality of the Islamic State (ISIL). Graham Allison, Nicholas Burns, Chuck Freilich, Nawaf Obaid, Ariane Tabatabai, Payam Mohseni, David Petraeus, Gary Samore, and Barak Mendelsohn suggest solutions to this strategic challenge.

And much more...

The international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change to be determined in Paris in December 2015 is “the greatest opportunity the world has had in 20 years to make meaningful progress on this exceptionally challenging issue,” Harvard Project on Climate Agreements (HPCA) Director Robert Stavins said in a Boston Globe op-ed in September. Stavins was in New York City during the week of the United Nations Climate Summit, which included numerous side events and a march that attracted several hundred thousand Americans calling for serious climate actions.

Robert Stavins and the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements research the best architecture for an agreement that will help prevent catastrophic climate change, a new book by Laura Diaz Anadon, Matthew Bunn, and Venkatesh (Venky) Narayanamurti takes on the challenge of transforming energy innovation in the United States—the world’s largest economy—to help provide secure, affordable energy without causing major damage to the environment and the climate.

In a standing-room-only event at Harvard Kennedy School in late September, former national security advisors from the United States and Israel highlighted the significance and the challenges of negotiating with Iran to prevent its development of nuclear weapons.

Thomas Donilon, national security advisor for the U.S. from 2010 to 2013, and Yaakov Amidror, national security advisor for Israel from 2011 to 2013, shared their views on the process of negotiating with Iran to reach an agreement on its current and future nuclear program.