Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Ane Lone Bagger visited the Belfer Center to discuss how the exchange of knowledge and problem-solving between the Center and Greenlanders can lead to solutions to issues of environmental degradation and change. 

The authors explain how the risks of computer systems are transferring to biological systems. The difference is that biological systems have the potential to cause a greater degree of damage than computer systems. Stringent biocontainment helps, but no containment system provides zero risk.

Nicola De Blasio has joined the Belfer Center as Senior Fellow in residence. Dr. De Blasio will lead research on energy technology innovation and the transition to a low carbon economy as part of a joint effort of the Belfer Center's programs on Environment and Natural Resources and Science, Technology, and Public Policy. 

Despite the Trump administration’s assertions, it is increasingly clear that the maximum pressure approach deployed to force Iran to temper its behavior in the Middle East is not working. Iran has allegedly engaged in provocations in the Persian Gulf and has taken concrete steps to scale back its commitments to enrichment limitations under the 2015 nuclear deal. Meanwhile, it hasn’t limited its missile program and has doubled down on its reliance on nonstate actors throughout the region.

The World Meteorological Organization labeled summer 2019's arctic and boreal wildland fires "unprecedented." In the first episode of In This Climate, the interviewers explore with scientists and policy experts how and why this circumpolar fire season was so significant and what we can do moving forward.

From the 1950s, after a brief stint at the fledgling United Nations, Timerbaev was directly supporting Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko on nuclear weapons issues. (He remembered drafting the first Soviet proposal for a fissile material cutoff treaty in 1958.)  Preventing nuclear annihilation became his consuming, life-long passion. He retired from the Foreign Ministry just as the Soviet Union was collapsing, resigning as permanent representative to the international organizations in Vienna, including, of course, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Fran Ulmer has joined the Belfer Center as Senior Fellow in residence. She will work with the Arctic Initiative, a joint effort of the Center's programs on Environment and Natural Resources and Science, Technology, and Public Policy.

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 application deadline is Friday, September 6, 2019.

Bruce Schneier elaborates on why the distinction between military and consumer products largely doesn't exist. This means that consumer systems cannot be weakened without also weakening commercial, government, and military systems.

Bruce Schneier's comprehensive approach to safe guarding elections is detailed in eight ways of defending the public sphere and the institutions of democracy.  Taken together, they form a kill chain.