Asia & the Pacific

Dr. Ian Bremmer, expert in political risk and founder of the Eurasia Group, gave a seminar sponsored by the the Future of Diplomacy Project on Thursday, November 9 at the Harvard Kennedy School, titled “Managing Risk in an Unstable World."

The Right Honourable Douglas Alexander offered his views on European security in a discussion moderated by FDP Executive Director Cathryn Cluver.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements will co-host four events at the Twenty-First Conference of the Parties (COP-21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, France in December.

On September 25, 2015, Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Barack Obama of the United States reaffirmed their "shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity and that their two countries have a critical role to play in addressing it." The Joint Presidential Statement on Climate Change built upon that of November 12, 2014 and contains pledges to cooperate: 1) To produce an ambitious multilateral agreement at the Twenty-First Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in December 2015; 2) To advance respective domestic actions (detailed in the announcement) to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions; and 3) To enhance bilateral and multilateral cooperation through forums other than the UNFCCC.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements co-organized a workshop on China-U.S. collaboration on climate-change policy on June 25–26, 2015 in Beijing. The workshop was hosted and co-organized by the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation.

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements cohosted two official side-events at the Twentieth Conference of the Parties (COP-20) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was held in Lima, Peru, in December 2014. In addition, Project Director Robert N. Stavins was a panelist at two other events at COP-20.

Washington Post Opinion Writer and Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project, David Ignatius, delivered an address entitled “Covering the Obama Administration in the Fog of Foreign Policy” and led a breakfast seminar with experts, students, and fellows on September 18. He explored current trends in the Middle East, critical factors at play in the negotiations with Iran, the West’s relationship with Russia and positive developments in the US-China relationship.