Homeland Security Project

Please join the Belfer Center for a Homeland Security Seminar with former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security John Tien, a Belfer Center Senior Fellow and former National Security Fellow, and Faculty Chair of the Homeland Security Project Juliette Kayyem.

They will discuss the challenges facing America’s safety and security in a time of increased global threats and domestic unrest. Twenty years into the Department of Homeland Security's start, as it manages issues as far flung as immigration surges, domestic radicalization, and climate change, was the post-9/11 experiment in creating a new federal agency successful?

This event will be off-the-record and in person.

America’s gun massacres are not inevitable. These recurring disasters can potentially be stopped before they happen—and some have been, by trained community teams responding to warning signs. In this seminar, journalist and author Mark Follman will share insights from “Trigger Points,” his acclaimed book chronicling the emerging field of behavioral threat assessment, which seeks to intervene with troubled people who are planning violence. Threat assessment is a growing policy, now required in K-12 schools and universities in many states. Follman will discuss how these multidisciplinary teams work, the role of mental health, and more, with time included for audience questions. 

Please join Belfer's Homeland Security Project for a lunch seminar featuring Alan Bersin, former Assistant Secretary for Policy & International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  

Starting in the 1990’s, globalization and the idea of North America germinated and then grew up together. The pandemic a generation later—coupled with the geopolitical splintering of the post World War II international order now underway— has brought the first phase of each to an end. As Globalization 2.0 and North America 2.0 (with USMCA) take shape – in dim outline as yet – new and important opportunities (e.g. the near shoring of  manufacturing supply chains) as well as challenges (e.g. surging migrant mobility) are emerging at the North American regional level. Whether and how these opportunities are capitalized upon, or not, by the United States  and its neighboring partners in Canada and Mexico, likely will determine the level of prosperity for all of them and the scope of future influence of U.S. leadership in the world. This vision posits a continental North American Region that extends from Colombia to the Arctic and from Bermuda to Hawaii. 

This event is open to all Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students. RSVP is requested.

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Investment Security Paul Rosen will speak to the evolution of economic tools to protect national security, in particular the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Rosen will discuss how CFIUS conceptualizes risk, the most frequently identified national security risks in CFIUS cases, the importance of maintaining technological leadership in areas such as semiconductors and AI, and how CFIUS works with allies to promote investment security across borders. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session and will address the Treasury hiring process and work opportunities for HKS graduates. Presented by the Homeland Security Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

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Paul Rosen serves as the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Investment Security.  Nominated by the President and confirmed with bipartisan support by the United States Senate on May 23, 2022, Mr. Rosen leads all operations and activities of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the interagency Committee authorized by Congress to review certain foreign investment into U.S. businesses for national security risks.  He oversees the review of hundreds of transaction filings each year often amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars in investment activity and is responsible for managing the Committee’s recommendations to the President to suspend or prohibit transactions that threaten to impair the national security of the United States.  He also guides the Committee’s policy and international relations activities as well as the monitoring, compliance and enforcement of national security agreements executed to mitigate national security risk.​

The Internet equips users (including advertisers) with veritable superpowers—the power to shape shift (change identities), teleport (intercept other users wherever they are), and mind read (exploit data about others’ preferences)—that threaten the civilization of the Web. These powers disrupt our usual human defenses against misinformation, manipulation, unwanted targeting, trespass (hacking), or untrusted speech. Homeland Security Project Fellow Steve Johnson recommends a framework for Internet regulation that bridles these superpowers so that cyber citizens can self-govern on the Internet as effectively as they do in the terrestrial world.

Paper: https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/internet-superpowers

This event is open to all Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students. RSVP requested below.

On Thursday, April 28th, the Belfer Center’s Security and Global Health Project will host Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux, Research Director for the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change at Harvard Medical School, as part of its spring seminar series.

The event will consist of a seminar involving Dr. Bourdeaux hosted by Juliette Kayyem, Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security and Faculty Director of the Security and Global Health Project.

Amid the War in Ukraine, the seminar will discuss why health systems are important to protect during periods of civil crisis—and why they are such a tempting target for parties to a conflict. Dr. Bourdeaux will then focus on core strategies for protecting, recovering and reconstructing health systems that arise from the three major global health paradigms: international humanitarian law, the global health development movement, and the newer global health security/biosecurity initiatives.

This event will take place in hybrid format. Harvard students may register to attend in-person using the RSVP link below. To join the livestream, please register here: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJErduirrzkiG9VkGoSqRwmzJ3JoPsQE4sj5 

On Monday, April 11th, the Belfer Center’s Homeland Security Project will host Nate Bruggeman, former Counselor to the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as part of its spring seminar series.

The event will consist of a seminar involving Bruggeman hosted by Juliette Kayyem, Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security and Faculty Director of the Homeland Security Project. The seminar will cover the status and conditions of the U.S. – Mexico border. 

On Thursday, April 7th, The Belfer Center’s Homeland Security Project will host Steve Johnson, Senior Fellow at the Homeland Security Project, as part of its spring seminar series. The event will consist of a seminar involving Johnson hosted by Juliette Kayyem, Belfer Senior Lecturer in International Security and Faculty Director of the Homeland Security Project.

On Tuesday, February 8th, The Belfer Center’s Homeland Security Project will host Alan Bersin, former Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as part of its spring seminar series. 

The event will begin with a seminar featuring Bersin that covers the evolution and status of the Homeland Security Enterprise over the past twenty years. The seminar will be moderated by Senior Fellow Steve Johnson. Following the seminar, Bersin will engage a group of students in a discussion of United States - Mexico relations from the Obama/Pena Nieto Administrations through the AMLO/Biden Administrations. 

The gathering will take place on February 8th, from 12 – 1:30 pm in Wexner 434A. The event is open to Harvard students only. 

Please join the Intelligence Project and Homeland Security Project for a panel discussion with Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Professor Juliette Kayyem, and Paul Kolbe on the intelligence and security failures which preceded and enabled the Capitol riot on January 6th and what this means for the future of countering domestic extremism.

This event is open to the public and will take place on Wednesday February 10th from 1:00-2:30pm via Zoom. Advance registration required.