News & Announcements

David S. Cohen, former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has been named a Senior Fellow with Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Cohen, who as the Agency’s second-in-command from 2015-2017 helped oversee all CIA operations, served previously as Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

As a non-resident Senior Fellow with the Center’s Intelligence and Defense Project, Cohen will conduct a study that focuses on the “CIA in the Digital Age,” looking into steps the Agency can take to improve its capacity for anticipating and tackling intelligence challenges in our increasingly interconnected world.

For the first time during the Syrian civil war, the US has shot down a Syrian aircraft. In response, Russia has threatened to target any aircraft, including US aircraft, that fly west of the Euphrates River.

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks to Farah Pandith, senior fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project and adjunct fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about the evolution of presidential rhetoric on acts of terrorism and the groups that perpetrate them.

Two days after presenting his credentials to President Trump, His Excellency Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, the newly appointed Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, expressed optimism about bilateral relations between the two countries. Respondent Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was more cautious in his assessment of the relationship after years of "reset."

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. 

The Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has named Ambassador Douglas E. Lute a Senior Fellow. While at the Kennedy School, Ambassador Lute will initiate a research project focused on NATO and transatlantic relations that will address the multiplicity of challenges facing the alliance as it approaches its 70th anniversary. He will also share his expertise in security and diplomacy by conducting seminars and study groups with students and fellows.

Cambridge, MA- Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, during the Harvard Future of Diplomacy Project’s Europe Week series, gave a pragmatic view of the future of European security and Germany’s changing role in geopolitics during a seminar moderated by FDP Executive Director Cathryn Cluver.

Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson’s "Deal or No Deal? The End of the Cold War and the U.S. Offer to Limit NATO Expansion," International Security, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Spring 2016), pp. 7-44, has been named the co-winner of the 2017 Article Award given by the Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association (ISA). This annual award is presented to the author(s) of the article that best advances the theoretical and empirical study of diplomacy—particularly articles that attempt to connect the study of diplomacy with broader issues and trends in the discipline.

A pioneer in the field of CVE (Countering Violent Extremism), Farah Pandith spent over a decade developing strategies to prevent and defend against the spread of extremist ideology, a policy area that has been under the microscope since President Trump declared his intention to “unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth,” during his inaugural address on January 20^th.

At a Future of Diplomacy Project seminar on February 13, Pandith spoke about the evolution of CVE policy and the importance of soft power in combating the spread of extremist ideology. She identified three distinct phases in the development of US counter-terrorism strategy after September 11.