Diplomacy and International Politics

On November 17, Ambassadors Nicholas Burns, Marc Grossman, and Marcie Ries officially launched their report, “A U.S. Diplomatic Service for the 21st Century,”published as part of the American Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.  These distinguished career Foreign Service Officers, and report co-authors, shared their recommendations on how to rebuild, reform, and reimagine the U.S. Foreign Service so that America can have the strongest and most effective diplomatic service to defend our country and advance its interests. 

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright joins longtime colleague and friend Ambassador Nicholas Burns for a conversation about her life, the dangers facing modern democracies, and America’s role in what she calls “a brand new world.” Reflecting on her childhood in London during the Blitz, her journey to America as a refugee, and her long career as a diplomat, Secretary Albright is facing the current crises and ongoing work with outspoken determination. “It took me a long time to find my voice,” she says,”I’m not going to shut up now.” A self-described worried optimist and grateful American, Albright offers an urgent message for the unprecedented times we are living in.

The moral of this long, circuitous and often perplexing story is that a nation can only be effective in its foreign policy if it is grounded at home-- stable socially, self-confident and united in its foundational values.

The political scientist Karl Kaiser has warned against the blockade of a European defense policy by Germany.

In the 60s, Karl Kaiser went to Harvard to work for Henry Kissinger, and later, as a political scientist and SPD member, he advised the chancellors of the party on foreign policy issues. In conversation, he remembers his time with Willy Brandt and explains how he underestimated Donald Trump.

Professor Nicholas Burns speaks with Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball about President Trump's comments during his visit to Japan. 

I saw first-hand the value of our alliance with Europe on 9/11 when I was the new American Ambassador to the Alliance.  When we were hit hard in New York and Washington D.C., the allied Ambassadors came to me in Brussels that afternoon to pledge their support for us when we needed them most.  They pledged to invoke the alliance’s collective defense clause—Article 5 of the NATO Treaty—that an attack on one would be considered an attack on all.

Nicholas Burns discusses Putin's comments about the Mueller investigation and Russian interference in U.S. elections in 2016.