North America

The lessons from our wartime folly are stark, but we should learn them.

Juliette Kayyem argues that Donald Trump's possible courtroom fate is not the only reckoning coming around the bend. For the U.S. Secret Service, this is an opportunity for a course correction.

The facts about the downing of the U.S. Reaper drone are still emerging, and many relevant specifics are yet to become public, but as we attempt to get our bearings it is worth beginning with applied history. Applied historians ask: have we ever seen anything like this before?

Arctic Initiative Co-Director John Holdren and Senior Fellow Fran Ulmer call for increased U.S.-Canadian cooperation on geopolitical challenges around relations with Russia and China as well as the critical problems being imposed by climate change on the North American Arctic.

Steven E. Miller provides an analysis of what the Russian invasion of Ukraine means for the security dynamics of the Arctic and Northern Europe.

Stephen Walt argues that China could mediate between Iran and Saudi Arabia because it has cordial, business-like ties with a majority of countries in the region: China has diplomatic relations and does business with all sides.  The United States, by contrast, has "special relationships" with some countries in the Middle East and no relationship at all with others, most notably Iran, which handicaps its Middle East policy.

Artificial intelligence will make lobbying more guileful, and perhaps more successful, argue Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier.

Belfer Center experts on the U.S.-China relationship and Middle East issues shared thoughts on the significance of the unexpected Iran-Saudi Arabia agreement brokered by China. 

Harvard University Professor James Stock, who serves as Harvard's inaugural Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability and director of the new Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, expressed his hopes for a smooth domestic energy transition during the newest episode of “Environmental Insights.”

Stephen Walt argues that in a multipolar world, the United States will be in an ideal situation to play the other major powers off against each other, and it can let its partners in Eurasia bear more of the burden of their own security.