Diplomacy and International Politics

Before President Trump announces his decision on the Iran Deal, Former US Ambassador to NATO Nick Burns and Former Senior Policy Advisor for Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Jake Sullivan join Andrea Mitchell to discuss what this decision could mean for foreign policy.

Amb. Nicholas Burns on North Korea's Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meeting today

Former American Diplomat and Professor at JFK School of Government at Harvard University, Nicholas Burns gives his insight on the relationship between North and South Korea following the historical summit of the two nations.

During the last week of March, Egyptians headed to the polls to award incumbent President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi a second term. The event was an election in name only — and many Egyptians intentionally invalidated their ballots to register their protest.

Nicholas Burns, former American diplomat and current professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, joined Chad to react to the current situation in Syria and his thoughts on how the United States need to handle it.

According to Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. ambassador who served Bill Clinton and in both Bush administrations, Trump’s approach in Syria has more in common with Obama’s than either would likely admit. “I think that the president’s tweet yesterday was specific enough that he has effectively drawn a red line as well. I think that the president needs to respond to this.”

A seminar with Safwan Masri, Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development and Senior Research Scholar, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University on his recent book, Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly from Columbia University Press.

The essence of global politics today, said career diplomat and Harvard professor Nicholas Burns in a speech at Bates College, is that no country can go it alone.

Issues like climate change, public health crises, the threat of chemical and nuclear weapons, and cyber attacks are transnational problems requiring transnational solutions. But while a global mindset is more necessary than ever, the United States’ highest leaders are drawing back from the world.

“We’re led by the first president since the 1920s who doesn’t believe that the United States has a fundamental responsibility to help the world be knit together, to be the first responders, to cope with the big problems and the small problems,” Burns said to a Bates audience on March 29.

Staffing gaps and significant personnel changes at the State Department have raised concerns about the direction of U.S. foreign policy, especially amid public statements by President Donald Trump concerning American alliances and positions on issues around the world. Ambassador Cameron Munter invites Ambassador Nicholas Burns to share his insights and ideas, including on timely topics such as the U.S.-Russia relationship following the re-election of Vladimir Putin, Transatlantic relations and changing perceptions about the future role of NATO, and a possible meeting between President Trump and his North Korean counterpart on nuclear nonproliferation and security.

Ambassador Burns was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President George W. Bush. Prior to that assignment, he was also U.S. Ambassador to NATO. Currently, Burns is the Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and also director of The Future of Diplomacy Project.

Audio recording of a March 28, 2018 MEI Seminar with Elizabeth Nugent, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Middle East Initiative and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Part of the Middle East Initiative Research Fellows Seminar Series.