Diplomacy and International Politics

Will protests at home hurt French President Macron's efforts to be seen as a leader of the West? Former U.S. ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns digs in.

It's been six months since President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said they came to an agreement on denuclearization, but new satellite images published this week by an independent Washington think tank showed at least 13 previously undeclared missile operating bases in North Korea.

Former President of Colombia and 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Juan Manuel Santos sat down with Professor Nicholas Burns (Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations, Harvard Kennedy School) to discuss peacekeeping efforts at a Harvard Kennedy School Forum Event.

What does President Trump's visit to the United Kingdom mean for the transatlantic relationship and his meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin? Former ambassador to NATO Nick Burns tells John Yang that if the president is going to retain political support, the respect of our allies, and even the respect of Putin, Trump will have to be tougher on the Russian leader.

President Trump targeted Germany on Wednesday in reiterating his demand that NATO countries step up their defense spending so that they shoulder a greater share of the burden in protecting Europe from Russia.

Ambassador Burns says it was "unwise" for Trump to question Russian meddling during a joint news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Poland on Thursday. Burns states that in doing so, Trump was "out of step with his own political party" and failed to defend the United States.

On March 28, 2017, Professor Nicholas Burns, alongside Stephen Krasner of the Hoover Institution and Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the implications of the Trump Administration's proposed 31% reduction in the budget for the State Department and USAID for fiscal year 2018.

Free media is a key instrument of social autonomy - which can be destroyed. Unfortunately, this mechanism seems to be deteriorating in many of those countries with which Germany maintains close relations. How can the freedom of words and images be defended? Is press freedom without democracy possible - and differently? On the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the magazine Der Spiegel, the director of the foreign bureau Britta Sandberg and editor-in-chief Klaus Brinkbäumer discussed with the journalists Galina Timchenko from Russia, and Can Dündar from Turkey, and Harvard Future of Diplomacy Project Executive Director Cathryn Clüver from the USA in the KörberForum. A conclusion: "The solution to the international problem of threatened press freedom is called solidarity" (Can Dündar). 

In German, Russian, and Turkish with German subtitles. 

Nicholas Burns provided video commentary on CNN Newsroom on January 8, 2017 on the subject of the alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential election.