Middle East & North Africa

Fmr. Amb. Nicholas Burns joins Morning Joe to discuss the naming of John Bolton as the new national security adviser. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also joins the conversation.

Vladimir Putin took a step closer to president-for-life status this week in Russia, winning a fourth term as president with more than 76 percent of the vote and not a single meaningful challenger against him. Today, President Donald Trump — whose campaign is still being investigated for potential collusion with Russia — said he called Putin to congratulate him and plan for a meeting in the “not-too-distant future.” In the room during that phone call was Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who has been accused of war crimes in Yemen. Former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, also a former undersecretary of state, joined Jim Braude to discuss.

Nick Burns talks with CNN's Don Lemon about the UN vote on Jerusalem and Trump's 'peculiar' relationship with Putin. 

President Trump promised voters that he would strike “a great deal” with Russia and its autocratic president, Vladimir Putin. Now nearly six months into his presidency, Trump is set to finally meet Putin at a summit this week in Hamburg — severely constrained and facing few good options that would leave him politically unscathed.

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.

Nicholas Burns, a Harvard Kennedy School professor, discusses President Donald Trump's meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the fallout from his intelligence disclosures to Russian diplomats. He speaks with Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal, Julia Chatterley and Scarlet Fu on "What'd You Miss?" 

Nicholas Burns says Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, who met with Trump campaign, is 'no friend of the US' and calls Trump is 'weak on Russia.'

The fall of Aleppo is a human catastrophe. It’s also a demonstration of the perils of choosing the middle course in a military conflict. Sometimes it’s possible to talk and fight at the same time. But in Syria, the U.S. decision to pursue a dual-track, halfway approach made the mayhem worse.

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.