Diplomacy and International Politics

Kennedy School program will study issues weakening continent, undercutting longtime U.S. alliance

David W. Miliband, president and CEO of the International Refugee Committee, discussed the global refugee crisis with Kennedy School professor Nicholas Burns at an Institute of Politics event Thursday evening.

At the event, entitled “The Refugee Crisis and What Can Be Done About It,” Miliband and Burns, who served as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs during the Bush administration, discussed ongoing humanitarian challenges in Syria, connecting the issue to a broader “forgotten crisis” of global population displacement.

Professor Nicholas Burns, quoted in a New York Times article titled “Some U.S. Diplomats Stage Quiet Revolt Amid Tensions With Trump,” describes the uncomfortable position that top US diplomats find themselves in as tensions between the State Department and the White House run high

In an interview with Amin Arefi of French magazine Le Point, Ambassador (ret.) Nicholas Burns reflects on the first ten days of the Trump administration and the trajectory of American foreign policy going forward. Burns explains the fundamental differences between Donald Trump and George W. Bush, and the  worrying implications of Trump's indifference towards the US-backed system of alliances that has upheld the liberal world order for the past seven decades.   

On Thursday, voters in the U.K. will decide by a simple majority whether to remain in the E.U. during a national referendum known as “Brexit” (a portmanteau of the words British and exit). Over the last month, public opinion polling showed voters evenly split, with the “leave” campaign edging upslightly in recent days. Douglas Alexander is a senior fellow in The Future of Diplomacy Project.The Gazette spoke with Alexander about the upcoming referendum and the potential fallout for the U.K. and Europe.

American Secretaries of State Project honoree Henry A. Kissinger looks back on George C. Marshall's groundbreaking 1947 Harvard Commencement speech and its enduring importance for American foreign policy.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Harvard on April 2-3, 2015 as part of the "American Secretaries of State Project," a joint venture with Harvard Kennedy, Law and Business Schools. She spent three intensive sessions attended by hundreds of Harvard students and faculty and led by the Project chairs (Nicholas Burns - HKS; Jim Sebenius - HBS; and Bob Mnookin - HLS), discussing some of her most important negotiations during their time in office, including the Balkans, Russia and the Middle East.