Diplomacy and International Politics

An interview with MEI Faculty Affiliate Asim Khwaja on his work at the Center for International Development's Evidence for Policy Design (EPoD) program with the Saudi Ministry of Labor on labor market policy as well as EPoD's Smart Policy Design and Implementation methodology and implications for the future of informed, iterative policymaking.

“I know Vladimir Putin well,” General Colin Powell said during a recent appearance at Harvard University. “He’s KGB through and through.” Powell, a former secretary of state, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and national security advisor, was on campus on October 30 to participate in Harvard’s American Secretaries of State Project."

During Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s September visit to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, he met with a select group of scholars and journalists that included several Iranian/nuclear experts from the Belfer Center. Graham Allison, Gary Samore, Olli Heinonen, David Sanger, and David Ignatius offered their takeaways following Rouhani's visit.

Rami G. Khouri, a veteran Middle East journalist and scholar, captured the intense drama of the nearly three-year-old Arab Spring with one statistic: while many recall the self-immolation by Tunisian activist Mohamed Bouazizi on Dec. 17, 2010, as the spark for the uprisings, Khouri noted that no fewer than 65 Arabs set themselves ablaze in the months following Bouazizi’s act to draw attention to grievances across the region.

As part of its mission to encourage deeper engagement with the people and cultures of the Middle East, the Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative (MEI) is offering a rich series of seminars that examine the complex transitions taking place, particularly in relation to politics and economics and the humanitarian crisis in Syria and surrounding countries.

A year after the sparks of revolution began in the Arab World, the Middle East Initiative (MEI) focused its spring events on the implications of the region’s tumultuous transition.

Leaders in government, diplomacy, and the non-profit world have been selected by the Belfer Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project for the prestigious 2012 Fisher Family Fellowships.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu opened the inaugural event of the Crown-Belfer Middle East Seminar Series in September.  The series is a joint venture between the Belfer Center and Brandeis' Crown Center for Middle East Studies.

The Summer 2010 issue of the Belfer Center newsletter features recent and upcoming activities, research, and analysis by members of the Center community on critical global issues. This issue highlights the Belfer Center's involvement with the Nuclear Security Summit, which was organized by Center alumni Gary Samore and Laura Holgate.

As the international need grows for nations to overcome challenges from climate change to terrorism to ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Harvard Kennedy School is responding with a new Future of Diplomacy Project directed by Nicholas Burns.