Science, Technology, and Public Policy

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.

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

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.

The second Arctic Innovators student cohort will present their ideas for the fast-changing Arctic region. Join us and vote for your favorite idea!

Light refreshments will be provided. Please bring your own reusable beverage container to help us reduce waste.

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.

The first Arctic Innovators student cohort will present their ideas for the fast-changing Arctic region. Join us and vote for your favorite idea!

Harvard Book Store welcomes the Harvard Kennedy School's Venkatesh Narayanamurti and University of Virginia's Toluwalogo Odumosu for a discussion of their book, Cycles of Invention and Discovery: Rethinking the Endless Frontier. This event includes a book signing.

Sponsored by the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program and the Environment and Natural Resources Program

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 

Tracing the history of the problematic "basic" and "applied" categories, Cycles of Invention and Discovery: Rethinking the Endless Frontier documents how historical views of policymakers and scientists have led to the construction of science as a pure ideal on the one hand and of engineering as a practical (and inherently less prestigious) activity on the other

A workshop with Bruce Schneier, internationally renowned security technologist, to discuss his current project on security in the Internet-of-Things.