Science, Technology, and Public Policy

The Bering Strait region is a particularly unique area - one of the Arctic's most productive and sensitive environments but also a region increasingly facing pressure and challenges. Amidst an upheaval in relations between Russia and the other Arctic states exist transboundary risks associated with increased vessel activity, which continue to advance despite these deteriorated conditions.  

Please join the Harvard Kennedy School's Arctic Initiative, the Wilson Center's Polar Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund for a virtual workshop on transboundary risk management in the Bering Strait region.

Registration: This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP using the link below. For those who cannot attend live, the seminar will be recorded and available to watch on this page.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Liz Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Join the Arctic Initiative for a virtual panel Q&A to learn more about the new Permafrost Pathways project from our collaborators at Woodwell Climate Research Center, the Alaska Institute for Justice, and the Alaska Native Science Commission. 

Launched in 2022, Permafrost Pathways brings together leading experts in climate science, policy action, and environmental justice to inform and develop adaptation and mitigation strategies to address permafrost thaw.

Attendance: This event is open to the public and hosted on Zoom. For those who cannot attend live, the seminar will be recorded and available to watch on this page.

Registration: Please RSVP at the link below. Registration will remain open until the event begins.

Climate change is transforming the Arctic. How can we as researchers and policymakers help communities build resilience to these shocks and stressors? Join the Arctic Initiative for a workshop on how we understand and operationalize the concept of resilience, how to support community-driven research, and the mechanisms that support connections between community action and policy-making. Featured speakers include Joel Clement, Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow; Jennifer Spence, Arctic Initiative Associate; Brittany Janis, Arctic Initiative Research Manager and Justin Barnes, Associate Editor of the Arctic Yearbook. Networking reception for students to follow.

Attendance: In-person attendance is limited to Harvard ID holders. Members of the public are welcome to attend virtually via Zoom.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Elizabeth Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Registration: Please RSVP at the link below. Registration will remain open until the event begins.

The world's biggest underground iron ore mine is about to undermine the Swedish city of Kiruna. The answer? Move the city.

Join the Arctic Initiative for a conversation with students from Luleå University and experts from across the globe for a case discussion about sustainable development, consensus building, and how one Arctic city is responding to rapid change.

Apply to be part of this unique case discussion opportunity by Monday, September 28, 2020, so you can be matched with your international team.

Speaker: Ariel Petrovics, Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom

Economic sanctions are one of the most common coercive tools of foreign policy, used regularly in an effort to change target state behavior. Yet despite their versatility and prevalence in international relations, sanctions are at best an unreliable tool of foreign policy. Indeed, many of the most important and publicized sanction attempts have failed to produce any desired change in the target. Existing literature on the effectiveness of sanctions has largely focused on whether or not sanctions eventually succeed, but this overlooks the arguable more policy relevant questions of when and under what conditions sanctions are effective tools of statecraft. The speaker's research  finds that sanctions with the greatest implications for international security — such as those that combat nuclear proliferation or foreign military aggression — fail even more catastrophically than their less salient counterparts.

Everyone is welcome to join us online via Zoom! Click here. Meeting ID number: 810311271

A one day workshop will be hosted by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. The event will focus on creating fairer data markets, exploring new business and governance models to harness personal and non-personal data, and enabling competitive forms of governance to benefit the needs of local businesses and people in all countries regardless of their level of development.

The workshop has limited places available, to express your interest to attend the meeting, click here.

This year, the Belfer Center's Arctic Initiative is selecting a small group of 2–3 Harvard students to present their ideas at the Arctic Innovation Lab in Iceland. The Lab takes place at the world's largest Arctic gathering, the Arctic Circle Assembly, from October 10–13, 2019.  The trip for students selected for the Lab is funded by the Arctic Initiative. Before traveling to Iceland, students are expected to attend three, 1-hour, group sessions which will support students in the process of developing their ideas. Students are also required to set up office-hours with members of the Arctic Initiative team as they work independently to hone their pitch.

Students interested in applying to be an Arctic Innovator should fill out this application form by September 6 to be considered for the program: https://forms.gle/yxCWGpW4xqrhVnjX6.

A public address by His Excellency Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, President of Iceland. Moderated by John Holdren, President Obama's Science Advisor and Director of the White Office of Science and Technology Policy (January 2009 – January 2017); Co-Director, Belfer Center's Science, Technology and Public Policy Program.

Bringing together students, investigators, policy makers, and others committed to understanding and communicating the human health impacts of global environmental change.

Cyber Security Project Director Michael Sulmeyer moderates a discussion on election hacking with CrowdStrike Inc. CEO and Co-Founder Dmitri Alperovitch, President of Verified Voting Pamela Smith, and Cyber Security Project Fellow Ben Buchanan