News & Announcements

Ambassadors Daniel Feldman, Marc Grossman, and Rick Olson, former Special Representatives to Afghanistan and Pakistan, spoke about the status of the conflict and made recommendations for current and future administrations. 

Putin and his government seek respect, stability from next U.S. administration, panel says.

Robert Springborg, a preeminent senior scholar of the Middle East has joined the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) community this semester as Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar at the Middle East Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Former UK Ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher, and BBC war correspondent, Paul Wood, participated in a conversation on Syria moderated by Future of Diplomacy Project Executive Director, Cathryn Clüver, titled “Tolerating the Intolerable: Syria Four Years On” on September 30. Both speakers gave a highly variegated and in-depth response of the major and corollary issues at play in the Syrian conflict and beyond, including the difficulty of finding moderate forces on the ground, the dangers of warzone journalism, the migrant crisis, and Russia's strategic interests.

An audio recording from an MEI panel discussion on Yemen, featuring panelists Fatima Abo Alasrar, Asher Orkaby, Leslie Campbell, and chair Michael C. Hudson.

On May 12, 2015, MEI convened a panel of Yemen experts to discuss Yemen's political and economic history and current dynamics, disentangle the various groups competing for control and influence, and envision potential resolutions to the current crisis.

“It’s been the same war fought 12 times over,” said Sean Carberry, former Afghanistan correspondent for NPR, in a public address on April 27 entitled “Afghanistan - Covering America’s Longest War.” As part of the Future of Diplomacy Project’s annual “South Asia Week,” jointly sponsored by the India and South Asia Program at Harvard University, Sean Carberry was joined by fellow Afghanistan-based journalist, Anand Gopal, who also shared reflections on covering the complex conflict. Their insightful remarks, concerning the different layers of conflict at play in Afghanistan, were moderated by the project’s Executive Director, Cathryn Clüver.

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” recorded on April 16, 2015, Nabil Fahmy, Former Foreign Minister of Egypt and Dean and Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP), American University Cairo, discusses Egypt’s transitional process, public policy challenges, and foreign policy, including relations with Iran and intervention in Yemen.