Analysis & Opinions

Henry Kissinger – longtime scholar and diplomat – died on Wednesday, November 29. Several Belfer Center foreign policy and security experts share their thoughts on the impact Kissinger has had on the U.S., the world, and on themselves.

Harvard Kennedy School’s Energy Policy Seminar series hosted Frances Moore, Associate Professor and the Hurlstone Presidential Chair in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California Davis, to present her recent research on how the social cost of carbon is likely significantly underestimated in the academic literature.

Artificial intelligence systems, controlled by corporations, will confuse and undermine the trust that is essential to a well-functioning society.

The 2023 United Nations’ Climate Change Conference is convening in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this week. COP28, as it is called, will put the issue of climate change at the center stage of the global debate. Yet the war in Gaza and its consequences are stark reminders that the most urgent challenge facing humanity is the preservation of global peace and security. A pecking order for the 21st century should thus bring back peace building as well as poverty reduction at the top of the policy agenda. Climate action cannot be at the expense of letting wars and poverty fester.

Stephen Walt writes that it may seem harder to give thanks this year, but it's not impossible. He enumerates five things for which to be grateful, including that none of the outside parties in the Middle East seem inclined to expand the conflict beyond Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

Read about the public events MEI has put on to educate the Harvard community about the ongoing events in Israel and Gaza.

In a barbaric surprise attack launched by Hamas on October 7, more Jews were slaughtered than on any day since the Holocaust. Thousands of elite Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated small communities and cities in southern Israel, where they proceeded to commit sadistic, repulsive crimes against humanity, filming their vile deeds and boasting about them to friends and family back home.

The assault was devastating for the Israeli people. Around 1,200 people were killed that day (the equivalent of around 42,500 Americans, adjusting for population) and some 240 were kidnapped—including young children and elderly people—and taken into Hamas’s vast tunnel network beneath Gaza.

The global economy has been buffeted by a series of shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and climate events. These have disproportionately affected low-income countries, reversing earlier gains in poverty reduction and exacerbating existing structural deficiencies. The development architecture, with its focus on emergency funding and interventions, has proven inadequate in addressing the recurring and intensifying shocks faced by low-income countries. A shift toward uber-resilience, defined as building back a stronger capacity to anticipate, prepare for, and respond effectively to shocks, while also seizing opportunities for growth and development, is needed.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reaches a stalemate, whether there is a need to push for diplomatic negotiations has come to the forefront of debates. Some argue that the Biden administration should pressure the Ukrainians to go to the negotiating table and resolve the dispute with Russia diplomatically. Others firmly oppose any such negotiations out of fear for Ukrainian capitulation.

This study group, led by Dr. Karen Donfried, is examining key foreign policy debates flowing from Russia’s war against Ukraine. Two teams of four students each debated this week's topic as the rest of the study group observed.

Over the course of six sessions, a study group, led by Dr. Karen Donfried, examined key foreign policy debates flowing from Russia’s war against Ukraine. This collection summarizes the debates held on each topic between two teams of four students each with the objective of providing a deeper understanding of the geopolitics of the war in Ukraine and the implications for U.S. interests.