Applied History Project

Imagine if you woke up tomorrow to news of:

• A massive cyber-attack that irreparably damaged financial markets and shut down critical infrastructure, or
• A significant conventional defeat due to strategic surprise like happened at Pearl Harbor, or
• The release of a manufactured pathogen that marks the beginning of a new global pandemic.

Please join the Intelligence and Applied History Projects at the Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School, for a day of thoughtful discussion about the top challenges facing the existing intelligence and national security mechanisms in the United States, and possible mitigation strategies to ensure that the U.S. has the people, structure, systems, integration, legal authority, and partnerships needed to protect national interests in the years ahead. Panelists include intelligence historians Dr. Sara Castro, Dr. Michael Warner, and Dr. James Wirtz, and former intelligence practitioners Sue Gordon and Ellen McCarthy. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper will provide a keynote address. At the conference, we will showcase the winners of our essay competition: A New National Security Act for the 21st Century.

This event will take place in hybrid format under Chatham House Rules. Registration is required. Harvard community members are welcome to attend in person. Please register for the event here: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_U_wuab28R0y1NnLQtIqylg.

At a time when U.S. federal debt is at its highest level since World War II—and the post-COVID economic recovery around the world remains uncertain—join the Belfer Center’s Applied History Project for an open session of our Applied History Work Group. Its members—distinguished historians and public servants—study the past to illuminate the most pressing challenges we face today.

As the United States grapples with a world changed by a rapidly rising China—and considers its own role by questioning how and why it grew into a postwar "superpower"—join the Belfer Center's Applied History Project for an open session of our Applied History Working Group. Its members—distinguished historians and public servants—study the past to illuminate the most pressing challenges we face today.

As America confronts a rapidly rising China – and ponders how to approach this daunting test – join the Belfer Center's Applied History Project for an open session of our Applied History Working Group. Its members – distinguished historians and public servants – study the past to illuminate the most pressing challenges we face today.

Speaker: Jayita Sarkar, Ernest May Fellow in History & Policy, International Security Program

How do the exports of U.S. power reactors relate to nonproliferation, global capitalism, and U.S. empire? And what does that tell us about the dominance by design of U.S. government and businesses in the decolonized world, where they promised development but delivered debt? This seminar pursues this inquiry through investigating the role of the light water reactor as an instrument of U.S. nonproliferation policy from the mid-1950s until the end of the 1980s.

Everyone is welcome to join us via Zoom! Register before the seminar here:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMscOyspz0uHdDEEReU3VaamAmpD7qRPMrO

Niall Ferguson and Graham Allison, co-directors of the Belfer Center’s Applied History Project, will discuss “Cold War II” between the U.S. and China.  

Ten years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Stanford University’s Niall Ferguson joins Harvard University’s Graham Allison to discuss the lessons of financial history. 

This seminar will explore the paradoxical phenomenon of commercial ties between Mao's China and international capitalism during the founding years of the People's Republic of China.

POSTPONED: Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Graham Allison discusses current events with 56th Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.