Diplomacy and International Politics

Barbara Stephenson, President of the American Foreign Service Association, and Nicholas Burns, one of the country’s best-known commentators on international affairs, spoke for WorldBoston on “The State of the State Department” and its implications for the future of the U.S. national interest.

In this keynote speech delivered January 25, 2018 at a conference on Atrocity Crimes at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, Nicholas Burns called on President Trump, who has not championed vocally human rights and democracy so far in his Presidency, to appoint an American Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes and to take the baton of Leadership from his Republican and Democratic predecessors on this vital issue.

Jens Stoltenberg,NATO Secretary General, discussed the future of the NATO alliance during this speech, given at the Harvard Kennedy School on September 23, 2016. He described the alliance as a responsive organization, capable of adapting to changes in the international security landscape but committed to the continuity of its founding values. In particular, he emphasized the necessity of maintaining a policy of absolute solidarity among member states, especially  in light of the exacerbating civil war in Syria and Russia’s aggressive stance toward countries to the East of NATO member state borders.