Diplomacy and International Politics

We have the most solipsistic president in American history offering up the most solipsistic foreign policy ever at a time when the me-me-me generation are busy taking selfies and other pols the planet over are trying to play that self-centeredness to their advantage. Have we reached Peak Solipsism? And what does that mean for the international system. We discuss in honor of and in the context of this week’s meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York City with David Rothkopf in New York, Ambassador Nicholas Burns in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Rosa Brooks in Washington, DC and Kori Schake in London, England.

The United States is hitting Russia with new sanctions to punish President Vladimir Putin's government for using a nerve agent against a former spy and his daughter in Britain. The US State Department says the Trump Administration has determined that Russia has used chemical or biological weapons in violation of international law, but the action comes five months after the US expelled more than 50 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the same poisoning.

Former US ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns speaks with AM's Kim Landers. He describes the Brussels NATO summit as "messy" and "divisive" due to President Trump's adversarial stance, which he says was an attempt to signal to his supporters at home that he was standing up to Europe. He describes Mr Trump's threats of leaving the treaty as "preposterous."

President Trump is in Europe this week, having first been in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, then heading to the UK for Thursday meetings and a visit with Queen Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, before meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday July 16.

As President Trump leaves Brussels, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Nicholas Burns, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, about the United States' place in the alliance and the threat from Russia.

President Trump has renewed his criticism of European defence spending, branding it inadequate. Rob Young of BBC's Business Matters asks former US Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns what's at stake.

As President Trump travels to Europe for the NATO summit, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns talks to Rachel Martin about what is at stake.

Opening the joint CLIMATE CHANGE DIPLOMACY WEEK event series, speakers and leading climate change experts from both Harvard and beyond participated in a panel discussion titled "What's at Stake in Paris?: Diplomacy and Policy at the Climate Change Talks," moderated by the Future of Diplomacy Project Faculty Director, R. Nicholas Burns, and co-hosted with the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements on November 9. The speakers comprised of Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard University, Daniel Schrag;former Costa Rican Minister of Environment and Energy, René Castro; former Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs and chief climate negotiator, Paula Dobriansky; and Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government and Director of the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, Robert Stavins. Together panellists weighed in on the upcoming UNFCCC talks to be held in Paris in December and the overarching policy issues at play.

Audio recordings from MEI's Spring 2015 Study Group Rethinking the Arab State: the Collapse of Legitimacy in Arab Politics, with Professor Michael C. Hudson.

During the Spring 2015 semester, Prof. Hudson hosted a distinguished group of scholars to re-examine the foundational concepts of legitimacy, the state, civil society, religion, and regional stability in the wake of the Arab Uprisings.

An audio recording from Nabil Fahmy, former Foreign Minister of Egypt and Dean, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP), Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy, American University Cairo.

On April 15, 2015 at MEI, Minister Nabil Fahmy presented his assessent of the challenges facing the Middle East today and laid out his vision for the region to confront those challenges and seize opportunities, with special focus on Egypt's role in the Arab world and Middle East at large, in a public address moderated by Kennedy School professor Nicholas Burns.