South Asia

"One overlooked feature in this ongoing tragedy is that Trump isn't wrong about everything. Some of his critics won't admit it, but several of the themes he sounded during the 2016 campaign — such as the need to rebuild America's deteriorating infrastructure — were correct (if far from original), and some of his foreign-policy instincts were sound even if his command of details was not. A minimally competent president could have made substantial progress on most if not all of these fronts, thereby leaving the country better off and enhancing his prospects for a second term."

On Bloomberg Daybreak, Nick Burns talks with David Westin about the threat from North Korea, the reactions from President Trump, and the diplomatic options on the table. 

For a century, the geopolitics of energy has been synonymous with the
geopolitics of oil and gas. However, geopolitics and the global energy economy
are both changing. The international order predominant since the
end of World War II faces mounting challenges. At the same time, renewable
energy is growing rapidly. Nevertheless, the geopolitics of renewable
energy has received relatively little attention, especially when considering
the far-reaching consequences of a global shift to renewable energy.

The paper starts with a discussion of seven renewable energy scenarios
for the coming decades: the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2016, the EIA’s
International Energy Outlook 2016, IRENA’s REmap 2016, Bloomberg’s
New Energy Outlook 2016, BP’s Energy Outlook 2016, Exxon-Mobil’s Outlook
for Energy 2016 and the joint IEA and IRENA G20 de-carbonization
scenario.

"As I argued several years ago, the days when the United States could create security and maintain order in nearly every part of the world are behind it, and U.S. leaders must do a better job of deciding which places matter most and which can be left to run themselves. To a large extent, Obama never made that choice."

In this June 3 Washington Post op Ed, Professor Burns details the dramatic rise of India as a strategic partner of the United States. During the last two decades, Washington and Delhi have transformed a once deeply suspicious and often contentious relationship into one with expanding ties in counter terrorism, homeland security, science and technology, defense, clean energy and other areas. Burns stresses that our next president should continue this bipartisan push to make India one of our most important friends in an increasingly fragile Asian security environment.

"Two important new reports in the United States this week clarify the difficulties involved in defeating ISIS or at least reducing its impact around the world. The first is a study by the Program on Extremism at George Washington University that analyzes the range of individuals who were involved in legal action against them, showing that there is no single profile of a typical ISIS recruit. Rather, the very wide range of people who explore ISIS and similar ideologies suggests that no single strategy — like social media counter-narratives or more public activism by “moderate” Muslims — will succeed in reducing this threat..."

When President Obama visits New Delhi on January 26 as the Chief Guest for India's Republic Day, he has a real opportunity to revive a moribund U.S.-India relationship. This is the central point of Professor Burns' January 15 op-ed piece. His host, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wants to convince Obama and the American business community to accelerate investments in the Indian economy to restore high growth rates--his top priority. The two leaders agree India and the U.S. should strengthen their work on counter terrorism and homeland security, on cyber and on an already close security relationship. Washington and Delhi need to work through disagreements on climate change, global trade and Putin's invasion of Crimea. Still, there is a big upside for the U.S. in deepening our partnership with India--a major priority of President Obama as it was for Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton before him.

New Delhi: HKS professor and former US undersecretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns is well-known in India as the diplomat who led the negotiations on the US-India civil nuclear deal that transformed bilateral ties. In New Delhi last week for a Track-Two non-official dialogue, Burns said he hoped that the Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi would clearly articulate what his vision for a strong India-US strategic partnership would be. Burns also said he hoped the Modi government will revive the India-US nuclear deal as part of its economic agenda.

In an otherwise annus horribilis in foreign policy, who were the brave men and women working tirelessly for peace in 2014? Professor Burns asked his Harvard Kennedy School students and his three daughters for their suggestions.

Here are their and his choices: Pope Francis; two 17-year olds--Malala Yousafzai and Hong Kong Protest leader Joshua Wong; AIDS advocate Joep Lange; the Ebola doctors/nurses; international relief organizations providing food/shelter to the 11 million Syrian homeless, the millions of non-violent protesters against racial discrimination; Shimon Peres and, yes, Barack Obama and John Kerry. And, above all, the victims of ISIS, including James Foley, Stephen Sotloff, Peter Kassig, Alan Henning and David Haines.

Professor Burns finishes this op-ed wishing us all peace on earth in 2015.

Professor Burns argues that the new Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, must define in more concrete terms his country's future economic, political and security relationships with the U.S. Burns believes U.S.-Indian ties are critical for our future. The Obama Administration has been clear what it hopes to achieve. We need such clarity from Modi.