International Relations

Nicholas Burns, former American diplomat and current professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, joined Chad to react to the current situation in Syria and his thoughts on how the United States need to handle it.

Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns joins CBSN to discuss the Syrian conflict after a chemical weapons attack killed dozens of civilians in Idlib, prompting an emergency meeting at the United Nations.

In the immediate wake of Donald Trump's victory, Professor Nicholas Burns and other Harvard experts ponder changes across the American and global landscapes.

In June 2016, three Harvard students received funding from the Middle East Initiative to travel to Za'atari Refugee Camp in Jordan to conduct a process evaluation of the pilot TIGER program. TIGER (These Inspiring Girls Enjoy Reading) is a community-based, non-formal education initiative for adolescent Syrian girls in Za'atari funded through the UNHCR Innovation fund, implemented by International Relief and Development (IRD) and designed and supported by Open Learning Exchange.

"Since the United Nations Development Program began work on the Arab Human Development Reports (AHDR) in 2001, the situation in many Arab countries has gone from bad to worse. In fact, today the region cannot even come together to publish a new report. This is unfortunate, because finding a new shared vision for Arab people, especially Arab youth, is a prerequisite for ever achieving peace and prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa."

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.

A collection of resources from the Middle East Initiative's events during March 2016, marking the fifth anniversary of the start of Syria's uprising, focusing on the international political and humanitarian response to the ongoing Syrian civil war and refugee crisis.

An audio recording of a talk by Mouin Rabbani, Former Head of Political Affairs, Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria.

Excerpt from a March 31 installment of the “Inside the Middle East" Q&A Series, with Mouin Rabbani, Former Head of Political Affairs, UN Special Envoy for Syria, on Palestine, Syria, and the successes and failures of UN efforts for peace in Syria.