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Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center

Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center analyzes global challenges ranging from nuclear proliferation
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The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is the hub of Harvard Kennedy School's research, teaching, and training in international security and diplomacy, environmental and resource issues, and science and technology policy. Receive our latest updates on the most pressing topics in science and international affairs: http://www.belfercenter/org/subscribe

03/31/2026

02/15/2026

This year at the Munich Security Conference, the Belfer Center was once again at the heart of critical conversations on international policy development, emerging technology and threat analysis, and exploring critical foreign and security challenges of our time.

Our Belfer Center and MSC official side event, analyzing the “rupture” critique of the international world order through the lens of Middle Powers, drew a packed crowd at the Rosewood Hotel. And throughout the weekend, Belfer Center leadership, faculty, fellows and affiliates took part in a range of official panels, events, roundtables, and task forces.

Read more on our website.

12/19/2025

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is proud to announce that Dr. Barham A. Salih, a Senior Fellow at the Center, has been appointed the 12th United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). His five-year term will begin on January 1, 2026, following election by the UN General Assembly, to lead the world’s principal institution charged with providing international protection to refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless persons, and returnees.

“This is a moment of great pride for the Belfer Center. Barham has been a treasured part of our community for the last year and a half, and we are thrilled that he will bring his extraordinary talents to this critical mission of addressing the needs of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Barham, as both a former head of state and a former refugee himself, knows what displacement does to families and nations and has devoted his life to building bridges where others saw only divides,” states Meghan L. O’Sullivan, Director of the Belfer Center and Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. “His unparalleled experience navigating conflict and building institutions – and his deep moral clarity about the responsibilities of the international community – make him an ideal High Commissioner. The United Nations could not have chosen a more principled, wise, and compassionate leader for this role.”

Read the announcement on our website.

12/16/2025

🚨New book: Atomic Backfires: When Nuclear Policies Fail is a sobering edited volume on how efforts to reduce nuclear weapons dangers may sometimes wind up exacerbating them.

In a field fixated on finding solutions, Atomic Backfires provocatively takes the opposite tack. Nuclear scholars and practitioners call for close scrutiny of “standard operating procedures” in nuclear politics. They warn decision makers, scholars, and students not to lose sight of the drivers and often calamitous effects of failed nuclear policies.

Co-edited by Stephen Herzog, Giles David Arceneaux, and Ariel Petrovics. Published by The MIT Press.

Read more: https://www.belfercenter.org/research-analysis/atomic-backfires-when-nuclear-policies-fail

12/10/2025

This week, Deputy Secretary General of NATO Radmila Sekerinska joined the Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School for a day of timely discussions on European security and critical transatlantic alliances. Speaking to filled rooms of students, faculty and fellows, the Deputy Secretary General reiterated NATO’s commitment to strong and stable transatlantic alliances, developing the transatlantic base and defense capabilities and crucially—to Ukraine. The conversations were moderated by Ivo Daalder - Senior Fellow and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO.

Watch the Deputy Secretary General’s keynote address and spirited interaction with students in full via the Belfer Center’s YouTube channel.

Photo credit: NATO/ Office of Strategic Communications

11/23/2025

World Review with Ivo Daalder has a new home: the Belfer Center.

Our first episode launched yesterday with a major geopolitical development.

A leaked 28-point U.S. peace proposal—reportedly drafted by President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff alongside a Russian counterpart—was delivered to President Zelensky, urging sweeping concessions to Moscow in exchange for security guarantees and U.S. financial incentives. According to reports, Vice President JD Vance set a Thursday deadline or threatened a full cutoff of U.S. military aid.

The plan stunned European allies, raising alarms about Ukrainian sovereignty and the reliability of U.S. leadership.

Listen as speaks with Susan Glasser , James Harding , and Peter Siegel to break down what this means for the war, the alliance, and U.S. foreign policy.

Special thanks for the studio and for production partnership.

11/21/2025

🚨 Now Published: Middle Power Case Study Reports

As the international system undergoes dramatic change, most of the world’s attention stays locked on the sharp competition between the U.S. and China. But focusing only on the great-power rivalry misses a bigger story: a growing group of influential “Middle Powers” that are rising in prominence and potential, challenging the idea of a unipolar or bipolar international system.

Harvard’s Belfer Center at Harvard Kennedy School—together with the Harvard Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation—is interrogating this trend through the Middle Powers Project.

The first round of publications from the project include original studies by seasoned authors specializing in their country’s history, geopolitics, and politics: academics and practitioners who have each characterized how their country stands amidst great power competition, and how they may influence the coming era. This includes:

🌎 Brazil, which is seeking global reach through multi-alignment among major powers, but its room for maneuver—and its influence in its own region—faces real limits.
🌎 India, which must pursue a delicate balancing act to leverage its heft without becoming dependent on, or antagonistic toward, any major powers—a particular challenge as U.S. policies shift.
🌏 Indonesia, which must boost its strategic dynamism to convert its geography and other resources into real influence over global issues and U.S.-China competition.
🌏 South Africa, host of the G20 summit this weekend and a committed member of the BRICS, which faces challenges in modernizing its economy as it seeks to maintain regional leadership and trade links with both Global North and Global South. 🌏 Turkey, a NATO member, which seeks strategic autonomy and new ties with China and others, but its ability to pivot away from its traditional Western orientation remains incomplete.

Explore the Middle Powers Project, read the case studies, and learn more via the Belfer Center website.

10/22/2025

📖 The energy weapon has returned - and it’s changing the rules of global power.

In a new Foreign Affairs Magazine article, Meghan L. O’Sullivan, Director of the Belfer Center, writes with Jason Bordoff, founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, about how the world is once again entering an era of energy weaponization.

They argue that this resurgence is driven by two powerful forces:
→ A new age of great-power competition and economic fragmentation, and
→ Fundamental shifts within the energy sector itself, from tighter oil markets to Chinese dominance in clean energy supply chains.

The result is a landscape of new, complex vulnerabilities that demand a rethinking of what “energy security” means in a fractured world. It is a daunting challenge—but O’Sullivan and Bordoff argue that the necessary policy responses could actually provide a powerful boost to the clean energy transition.

Read the full piece on Foreign Affairs.

10/16/2025

This week, Belfer Center Director Meghan L. O’Sullivan moderated a conversation with Arati Prabhakar, former Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (2022-2025).

The Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School hosted the wide-ranging conversation about the role of science and technology in U.S. democracy, including on Federal funding for research and the implications of recent cuts; the role of science and technology in U.S. national security and the economy; current frontiers in science and implications for U.S. competitiveness; and confronting today’s crisis and building for the future.

Watch in full via the IOP’s YouTube Channel.

10/01/2025

🚨Belfer Center Fellowship applications for the 2026-27 academic year are now open!

Supporting both academic and professional tracks, our fellowships are open to doctoral candidates, recent Ph.D. recipients of equivalent degrees, and practitioners from the public and private sectors.

Learn more and apply via our website.

09/26/2025

This week, Jean-Noël Barrot, the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, joined Belfer Center Executive Director Natalie Colbert for a conversation exploring about the fundamental pillars of democracy and the importance of accountability, transparency, and truth.

To a room full of Belfer Center fellows, faculty and students at the Harvard Kennedy School, Minister Barrot spoke about the ways in which democracy is under attack globally, and how leaders are grappling with what can be done to protect it. Students asked the Minister a range of questions, spanning current global tensions and French recognition of a Palestinian state, international AI regulation frameworks, and the nature of U.S.-French cooperation under President Trump.

Watch the conversation in full via Belfer Center’s YouTube channel.

09/17/2025

The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School is pleased to announce that Ambassador Ivo Daalder has joined the Center as a Senior Fellow.

Ambassador Daalder, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2009–2013), former President and CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and host of the World Review podcast, brings distinguished diplomatic leadership, policy acumen, and institutional insight to the Belfer Center.

Read more via the Belfer Center’s website.

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