News & Announcements

Matthew Meselson, a driving force behind the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), has received the $50,000 Future of Life Award for his successful efforts to ban biological weapons – one of the most inhumane forms of warfare known to humanity. The award was presented on April 9 during the Keynote Ceremony of the Conference of World Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder. April 9 marked the eve of the 47th anniversary of the signing of the BWC.

Former Deputy Secretary of Energy Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall is joining Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs as a Senior Fellow, the Center announced today. Sherwood-Randall, who has served in the White House and Departments of Energy and Defense, is returning to the Center where she worked in the 1990s to help establish two pioneering projects – the Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project with Graham Allison, who this month stepped down as the Center’s director, and the Preventive Defense Project with Ash Carter, the former Secretary of Defense who is the new Belfer Center director.

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.

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.

Sandri Gozi, Italian Undersecretary of State for European Affairs, joined the Future of Diplomacy Project on November 1 for a discussion titled “Italy, the EU and the US: A Conversation on Transatlantic Challenges.”