Diplomacy and International Politics

Ambassadors Daniel Feldman, Marc Grossman, and Rick Olson speak with Faculty Director Nicholas Burns about the options for reconciliation in Afghanistan and US strategic objectives in the region. 

Ambassadors Daniel Feldman, Marc Grossman, and Rick Olson, former Special Representatives to Afghanistan and Pakistan, spoke about the status of the conflict and made recommendations for current and future administrations. 

The Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has named Ambassador Douglas E. Lute a Senior Fellow. While at the Kennedy School, Ambassador Lute will initiate a research project focused on NATO and transatlantic relations that will address the multiplicity of challenges facing the alliance as it approaches its 70th anniversary. He will also share his expertise in security and diplomacy by conducting seminars and study groups with students and fellows.

New York Times columnist and former Fisher Family Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project, Roger Cohen, reveals his thoughts on the recent string of ISIS-affiliated attacks from Paris to San Bernadino and reflects on what these events will mean for U.S. strategy in the Middle East.

We kicked off April with a series of phenomenal events led by world-class speakers and practitioners of negotiation and diplomacy in the 21st century. In the space of one week, we hosted the former U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright; President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer; Robert Bosch senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Constanze Stelzenmueller; we also began a series of study groups with our spring Fisher Family Fellows: former EU Trade Commissioner, Karel De Gucht; and former Indian National Security Adviser, Shivshankar Menon.

Hosting speakers such as US Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, President of Turkey Dr. Abdullah Gül, and China's Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai, the Future of Diplomacy Project has had an amazing year in 2014, pursuing its mission to promote public understanding of modern diplomatic practice in response to complex international issues.

Nicholas R. Burns and David Manning, former ambassadors to NATO from their respective countries, respond to the question of whether NATO is still needed. They write: “Will you still need me when I’m sixty-four?” sang the Beatles. NATO is now in its 64th year, and in our view the answer is an unequivocal yes. The alliance still underwrites our security and underpins our prosperity. It gives us a global voice that no member state would enjoy individually. And if “it’s good to talk” in a dangerous world, there is no better trans-Atlantic forum.

The military option in Afghanistan is losing time, Gitte Lillelund Bech said. Joint civilian and military capacity building is essential and a precondition of a hand-over to local forces.