Science & Technology

Ash Carter, Director of the Belfer Center, joins a panel of experts moderated by Thomas L. Friedman discussing "Computing for the People: Ethics and AI" at an MIT event celebrating the Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing.

The Technology and Public Purpose Project held a discussion on “Responsible AI: A Guide to the Future” with Joi Ito, Director of the MIT Media Lab and a panel of distinguished speakers working on innovative and emerging AI-based technologies.

Will protests at home hurt French President Macron's efforts to be seen as a leader of the West? Former U.S. ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns digs in.

Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro joined Harvard Kennedy School Professor Nicholas Burns in a discussion concerning the role Congress should play in foreign policy in the era of President Trump. Castro discussed his upbringing and the civic conscious he gained at a young age alongside his twin brother Julian Castro, which encouraged him to eventually pursue a career in public service. The conversation covered a wide range of foreign affairs topics including immigration, trade, and terrorism. Castro took questions from the audience and voiced his concerns about a variety of global developments and threats and his believe that Congress should take a more active role in these issues.  

A practical training video for campaign staff and volunteers from all political parties, "Five Things" was produced by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs' bipartisan Defending Digital Democracy Project to help campaigns understand the importance of cybersecurity and learn what they can do about it.

Eric Rosenbach gives a presentation at the 2018 Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California on how the U.S. could respond to a North Korean cyber attack.

Kendall Hoyt, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Dartmouth Medical School and former fellow with the Belfer Center’s International Security Program, talks with Aroop Mukharji (@aroopmukharji) about improving response time to outbreaks, a brief history of anti-vaxxers, and how she got into biodefense.

Building effective cyber defenses is a major challenge for defense planners, just as missile defense has been since the original Strategic Defense Initiative. In both realms the offense has the advantage, making effective defense difficult. Missile defense, however, now has several decades of experience producing and fielding new technologies. The Project on Military and Diplomatic History hosted a panel discussion of CSIS experts and Michael Sulmeyer of the Belfer Center on the history of missile defense, its experience in developing new technologies, and what these tell us about the prospects for building effective cyber defenses.

Election Security The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Cybersecurity held a hearing on the Defense Department’s role in ensuring the U.S. election process is secure from foreign influence. Much of the discussion focused on Russian meddling, which took place in the 2016 presidential election and was expected to continue in future U.S. elections as well as those around the world. Committee members and witnesses agreed that the issue would continue to get worse and that there must be a solution that includes both the government and the private sector, while understanding that each has different interests in terms of national security and profit, respectively.