Science, Technology, and Public Policy

"Increasing America's preparedness for future storms means more than building taller and stronger barriers to stand up against severe weather. A climate-resilient America is one built on a foundation of the best information and innovative ideas and one that incorporates scientific knowledge to understand risks, take preventative steps, improve disaster-response and recovery, and protect our communities."

This seminar considered how the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reacted to nuclear crises. The IAEA often appears not just to have weathered such crises, but to have successfully leaped through windows of opportunity presented by them. This has resulted in periodic expansions of its mandate, capabilities, and resources. The 2011 Fukushima disaster appears to be a puzzling exception, raising the question of what concatenation of factors needs to be present for the IAEA to take advantage of nuclear crises.

In the aftermath of a disaster such as superstorm Sandy, two-way communication is essential. People need to be able to receive news and updates, and to request assistance and provide status updates to loved ones. Yet after hurricane Sandy, large portions of New York, New Jersey, and other areas lost their communication systems — their mobile phone network, cable TV, and Internet. Some sought out the last few pay phones as the only equipment that worked. Here are four ways to better prepare our phones and other devices for the next disaster.

"...[A]fter a decade of steady deregulation, during which communications companies asserted that new wires required new rules, the companies are in charge of themselves. What's more, those that sell network connections in the U.S. are trying to claim a constitutional right to operate without any federal oversight."

Industry and academic experts from Harvard, MIT, and other Boston-area universities met for a three-day conference in September 2011 to examine policy choices facing the fast-changing field of information and communications technology at the intersection of public policy. The conference was convened by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affair’s Information and Communications Technology and Public Policy Project (ICTPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The Winter 2010/11 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 a major Belfer Center conference on technology and governance, the Center's involvement in the nuclear threat documentary Countdown to Zero, and a celebration of Belfer Center founder Paul Doty.