Science & Technology

24 Items

Video - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Kendall Hoyt on Office Hours

| Apr. 02, 2018

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.

Audio - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Kendall Hoyt on Office Hours Podcast

| Apr. 02, 2018

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.

Book - Oxford University Press

Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies

| July 2016

This book explores the sources and dynamics of social opposition to innovation. It:

  • Explains the roots of resistance to new technologies - and why such resistance is not always futile
  • Draws on nearly 600 years of economic history to show how the balance of winners and losers shapes technological controversies
  • Outlines policy strategies for inclusive innovation to reduce the risks and maximize the benefits of new technologies

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Analysis & Opinions - Power & Policy Blog

The Plutonium Mountain Mission: Lessons

| Sep. 27, 2013

In Summer of 2013, The Project on Managing the Atom released “Plutonium Mountain: Inside the 17-Year Mission to Secure a Dangerous Legacy of Soviet Nuclear Testing.” In the report, Eben Harrell and David Hoffman tell how dedicated scientists and engineers in three countries overcame suspicions, secrecy, bureaucracy, and logistical obstacles to secure more than a dozen bombs worth of plutonium that had been left behind at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although the outline of the Semipalatinsk operation had been made public before, the report filled in new details.

Blog Post - Technology and Policy

Africa and Brazil at the Dawn of New Economic Diplomacy

| Feb. 26, 2013

In recent years the major focus of China’s engagement in Africa has been on economic diplomacy. Much of this debate has been influenced by concerns over China’s rise as an economic superpower and the preoccupation with viewing Africa through the jaded natural resource lens. A closer look at Africa’s growing economic diplomacy reveals a more complex picture involving other important emerging market economies as illustrated by economic relations with Brazil. Africa’s relations with Brazil highlight the emergence of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) as a new economic alliance that is reshaping international trading relations.

Blog Post - Technology and Policy

Developing Country Farmers Bridge the “Biotechnology Divide”

| Feb. 22, 2013

  Critics of agricultural biotechnology have long contended that it would not benefit farmers in developing countries. Their concerns were not unjustified. A large number of technologies continue to be restricted to industrialized countries despite their global relevance. Farmers in developing countries, however, are bridging the “biotechnology divide.” According to a new report by Clive James of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), “For the first time, developing countries grew more, 52% of global biotech crops in 2012 than industrialized countries at 48%.

Blog Post - Technology and Policy

Africa’s Economic Growth Prospects

| Feb. 15, 2013

Africa’s economic growth outlook has come into sharp focus recently. Some analysts have argued that claims about “Africa Rising” are a myth. Others argue that Africa’s growth is underestimated. These contrasting views, however, pay little attention to major trends that are shaping the continent: deepening regional integration; shifting trade relations; and the rise of technocratic presidencies. Deepening Regional Integration African economies are generally viewed as being too dependent on global trends.

Analysis & Opinions - Technology+Policy | Innovation@Work

Persecuting Biotechnology

| January 11, 2013

"Nearly two decades of propaganda and advocacy based on questionable scientific evidence forced many countries to forego the benefits of a new technology even before its merits had been assessed. In effect, these restrictions have introduced a new class of risks associated with not being able adopt a new technology even where it would confer benefits to farmers, consumers, and industrialists."

Blog Post - Technology and Policy

Empowering Women by Upgrading Local Training Institutions

| Mar. 05, 2012

Inequality between men and women remains one of the most critical sources of low economic productivity in Africa. Many of the efforts seek to address the challenge by creating new training institutions. A complementary strategy is to identify and upgrade promising local initiatives. In her preface to the new Gender Equality and Female Empowerment, of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton states that achieving US global development objectives “will demand accelerated efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment.