Diplomacy and International Politics

Nicholas Burns, a Harvard Kennedy School professor, discusses President Donald Trump's meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the fallout from his intelligence disclosures to Russian diplomats. He speaks with Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal, Julia Chatterley and Scarlet Fu on "What'd You Miss?" 

In this Boston Globe op-ed, Professor Burns writes about the tragedy of Boris Nemtsov's murder in Red Square and the need for the West to continue to shine a bright spotlight on the lack of freedom in Russia. He argues that the European and U.S. response to Russia's actions in Ukraine has been insufficient. In particular, Germany, the strongest European state, appears incapable of combining diplomacy and tougher measures effectively in its dealings with Russia. Professor Burns writes that it is timer for President Obama to lead a stronger Western response to Putin through greater economic sanctions against Russia, much more substantial financial aid to the Ukrainian government, the transfer of defensive arms to Kiev and a new move to station a strong contingent of NATO ground and air forces permanently on the territory of NATO allies Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Those forces will help to make credible to Putin NATO's Article V commitment to the security of the Baltic States.

As the world's attention is largely on Sochi, mass killings and exodus continue in Syria and negotiations barely make it to the table in Geneva. In this piece, Nicholas Burns wonders when the United States and other global powers will have their "Srebrenica moment," when they can no longer stand on the sidelines and resolve instead that they finally have to act. For the sake of the 9.3 million Syrian refugees and the millions still suffering in country, he hopes its soon.

Professor Burns discusses this week's extraordinary events surrounding the chaos in Syria and the Russian offer to broker a diplomatic end to the crisis.