A Seminar with David Ignatius, Columnist, The Washington Post
Moderated by Nicholas Burns

America and the Global Political Awakening — David Ignatius — April 13, 2011

Celso Amorim served as Minister of External Relations of the Federative Republic of Brazil for three administrations: first, under President Itamar Franco from 1993-1994 and then in the consecutive administrations of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) from 2003-2010, making him the longest serving foreign minister of Brazil.

The Role of Brazil in a Changing World — Celso Amorim — April 28, 2011

The Defense and Intelligence Podcasts highlight the research of Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs fellows, faculty, and guest speakers on defense and intelligence issues.

Hunters and Gathers in Human Intelligence - Charles Cogan — March 13, 2013

A discussion with Ari Shavit, senior correspondent at Haaretz, about his recent book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. The book has garnered critical acclaim and won the Natan Book Award in 2013.

My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel — January 28, 2014

A seminar with Mohammed Qazilbash, Yemen Country Director for Mercy Corps.

Yemen at the Crossroads — August 30, 2012

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies is hosting a seminar with Jon B. Alterman, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, director of the Middle East Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies.

The Egyptian Revolutions and Defining the New Normals – December 3, 2012

A panel discussion that probes three distinct citizenship regimes in the Middle East: Iran, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The papers trace the webs of bureaucratic practices, legal codes and discursive practices in each of these countries to assess their impact on three groups: asylum seekers, migrant workers and trafficked women in the region.

The panelists include:
Nora Loori, Research Fellow, International Security Program
Leila Asadi, Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
and Sharon Weinblum, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University.
The panel will be moderated by Christina Bain, Director, Program on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

Regulating the Other: Stories from Iran, Israel and the United Arab Emirates — March 11, 2013

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Policy Amidst Regional Instability: A Conversation with Prince Turki Al Faisal of Saudi Arabia

Middle East Initiative Speaker Series
Malkin Penthouse
November 18, 2014, 4:30-6:00 p.m.

A public address by His Royal Highness Prince Turki Al Faisal of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, former Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States.

Moderated by Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at Harvard Kennedy School.

About HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal:

Prince Turki was Director General of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), Saudi Arabia's main foreign intelligence service, from 1977 until 2001.  In 2002 he was appointed as the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a position he served until 2005, when he was appointed as Ambassador to the United States. He retired in February 2007.

A Founder and Trustee of the King Faisal Foundation, Prince Turki is also the Chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.  In addition, he is a Trustee of the Oxford Islamic Center at The University of Oxford and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University, as well as being a Commissioner at the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. Prince Turki received an honorary PhD in Law from the University of Ulster in 2010 and has been a visiting Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Prince Turki Al Faisal on Saudi Arabia's Foreign Policy

Does “Sunni v. Shia” really explain the upheavals currently roiling the Middle East?  A better framework for understanding regional politics is as a “cold war” involving a number of regional players.  That new Middle East cold war is the result of the weakening of Arab states and the creation of domestic political vacuums into which local actors invite external actors.

About F. Gregory Gause:

F. Gregory Gause, III is the John H. Lindsey ’44 Chair, Professor of International Affairs and Head of the International Affairs Department at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University. He also is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. He is the author of three books and numerous articles on the politics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf.

"The New Middle East Cold War" with Gregory Gause — November 13, 2014

"Neither War Nor Peace: Why the Information Revolution Makes 'Forever Wars' a New Normal"

A talk given at The International Institute for Strategic Studies on November 26, 2014.

www.iiss.org

The twenty-first century's information revolution creates networked, multi-player, and open-ended conflicts that occupy a grey zone between war and peace. Emile Simpson will propose that this type of dispute is the new normal. His talk will analyse the challenges that arise from this phenomenon and suggest appropriate strategic responses.

"Neither War Nor Peace" Emile Simpson — November 26, 2014

Turkey’s Nationalism Conundrum: Religious Freedom and Decline of Christian Communities and a Move Beyond Secularist and Islamist Authoritarian Logics.

"Turkey's Nationalism Conundrum" with Elizabeth Prodromou — March 4, 2015

In this “Conversation in Diplomacy,” with former NATO Secretary-General and 2014 fall Fisher Family Fellow, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Future of Diplomacy Project Director R. Nicholas Burns discusses NATO's collective security issues, Russian aggression in Ukraine, and the destined leadership of the U.S. in the liberal democratic global community. 

Criticizing the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia last year, Secretary-General Rasmussen likens the crisis in Eastern Europe to an "escalation ladder." Rasmussen fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin will make the next step of intimidating the Baltic states after Ukraine. He stresses the pressing need to support Ukraine militarily and financially as well as to "contain the threat from Russia in the Baltic states," including NATO states, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Rasmussen prescribes the strategy of "determined strengthening" of NATO's collective defense and deterrence in Eastern Europe by sending in a 'rapid reaction force' and implementing permanent stationing of NATO ground and air forces in the Baltic states. 

The former NATO Secretary-General expresses more optimism about NATO countries increasing defense budgets to meet the NATO obligation of 2% of GDP. "It will be difficult but the Russian aggression against Ukraine is a wake-up call, which I think will initiate new thinking in many capitals," states Rasmussen. Rasmussen credits this increase to the fact that "Europeans have seen that while defense comes at a cost, insecurity might be even more expensive."

In response to the "arc of crisis," represented by Russian aggression and the rise of terrorist organizations like ISIL, Rasmussen proposes reinvigorated and confident U.S. leadership and European assistance in constructing a shared liberal democratic world order. 'As a friend to America, as a European, I would say we need more determined U.S. leadership," maintains Rasmussen. 

Conversations in Diplomacy - Anders Fogh Rasmussen — March 3, 2015

A seminar with Yezid Sayigh, Senior Associate and Professor, Carnegie Middle East Center, Beirut. Part of the spring 2015 study group led by MEI Visiting Scholar Michael C. Hudson: "Rethinking the Arab State: The Collapse of Legitimacy in Arab Politics."

"ISIS: a 'State in Waiting'" with Yezid Sayigh — March 31, 2015

Watch the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9-A4Q8imvw

Read the article here: http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/25208/alliance_coercion_and_nuclear_restraint.html?breadcrumb=%2Fexperts%2F2885%2Fgene_gerzhoy

Nuclear Restraint — Gene Gerzhoy on International Security Author Chats

Richard Zeckhauser, Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, at Harvard Kennedy School, sits down with Aroop Mukharji to talk about everything from how to test your optimism to eating salmon and saving the Air Force money.

Watch the video clips on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bnyIjqKl40&list=PLp1QSxtgPnf5jtL09yzdIlpSuNMOijtm9&index=2

Zeckhauser’s Paper on Paltering: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/rzeckhau/paltering.pdf

Belfer Center website: http://www.belfercenter.org

Richard Zeckhauser on Optimism and Eating Sushi

Mouin Rabbani, Former Head of Political Affairs, UN Special Envoy for Syria, sits with Basma Alloush, Associate Editor, Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy to talk about Palestine, Syria, and the successes and failures of UN efforts for peace in Syria.

Inside the Middle East: Q&A with Mouin Rabbani — March 31, 2016

Sean Lynn-Jones, Editor of the International Security, talks with Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, author of the article "Deal or No Deal? The End of the Cold War and the U.S. Offer to Limit NATO Expansion," which appears in the Spring 2016 issue of International Security.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XBDXErLZps&index=6&list=PLp1QSxtgPnf6990FIGczVUXaQd2eDyQLC

During the 1990 German reunification negotiations, did the United States promise the Soviet Union that it would not expand NATO into Eastern Europe? Although no written agreement exists, archival materials reveal that U.S. officials did indeed offer the Soviets informal non-expansion assurances, while keeping open the possibility of expansion and seeking to maximize U.S. power in post–Cold War Europe.

Deal or No Deal — Josh Shifrinson on International Security Author Chats

A seminar with Roger Owen, A. J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus, Harvard University. First session of the fall 2016 study group led by MEI Visiting Scholar Professor Robert Springborg, Globalization and Its Discontents in the Middle East and North Africa.

September 13, 2016

Roger Owen: The First Wave of Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa: 1870-1914

A seminar with Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, Visiting Scholar, Middle East Initiative and the Belfer Center's Iran Project and Professor of Economics, Virginia Tech. Third session of the fall 2016 study group led by MEI Visiting Scholar Professor Robert Springborg, Globalization and Its Discontents in the Middle East and North Africa.

September 27, 2016

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani: Obstacles to Global Integration of Iran’s Economy

Vipin Narang explains how states choose among four possible strategies for developing nuclear weapons.

Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation — Vipin Narang on International Security Author Chats

In a conversation with Professor Nicholas Burns, Ban Ki-Moon, who served as UN Secretary-General from 2007 to December 2016, touches upon his transition from the diplomatic to the academic world, UN efforts to confront climate change under his leadership, and reconciling political realities with the achievement of long-term, global aims.

Conversations in Diplomacy: Ban Ki-moon — April 19, 2017

Former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak (@barak_ehud), the most decorated soldier in Israel’s history and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center, talks with Aroop Mukharji (@aroopmukharji) about who needs to defeat ISIS, how Israelis view President Trump, and his curiosity about clocks.

Watch highlights on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok0JNSl-ZxQ&index=2&list=PLp1QSxtgPnf5jtL09yzdIlpSuNMOijtm9

More about Ehud Barak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehud_Barak

Belfer Center website: http://www.belfercenter.org

Ehud Barak on Israel, the U.S., Trump, and His Curiosity About Clocks

Vera Mironova (@vera_mironov), an Associate with the Belfer Center’s International Security Program, talks with Aroop Mukharji (@aroopmukharji) about ISIS’s drug and alcohol problem, her experience embedded in combat zones, and how insurgents shop around for the best job opportunities.

Subscribe to the Belfer Center for a new episode of Office Hours the first of each month!

Listen to the full interview and subscribe to the podcast: http://hvrd.me/K2K330e5mfD

More about Vera Mironova: https://www.belfercenter.org/person/vera-mironova

Vera’s Personal Website: http://vmironova.net

Belfer Center website: http://www.belfercenter.org

Listen to the full interview: http://hvrd.me/jeMZ30e5mj1

Vera Mironova on ISIS Drinking, Embedding in Conflict Zones, and the Job Market for Insurgents

A seminar with Asher Orkaby, Research Fellow, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University and Lecturer, Tufts University, on his recent book, Beyond the Arab Cold War: The International History of the Yemen Civil War, 1962-68, from Oxford University Press.

Talk Description

The current conflict in Yemen is not part of a bipolar regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Rather, it is the culmination of a local civil war that began in 1962 with the establishment of a modern republic and the overthrow of a 1,000 year ruling imamate. Houthi tribesmen and the remnants of the Yemeni republic are fighting for the very identity of the Yemeni state and its place in South Arabia.

About the book

Beyond the Arab Cold War brings the Yemen Civil War, 1962-68, to the forefront of modern Middle East History. During the 1960s, in the wake of a coup against Imam Muhammad al-Badr and the formation of the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR), Yemen was transformed into an arena of global conflict. Believing al-Badr to be dead, Egypt, the Soviet Union, and most countries recognized the YAR. But when al-Badr unexpectedly turned up alive, Saudi Arabia and Britain offered support to the deposed Imam, drawing Yemen into an internationally-sponsored civil war. Throughout six years of major conflict, Yemen sat at the crossroads of regional and international conflict as dozens of countries, international organizations, and individuals intervened in the local South Arabian civil war.

Yemen was a showcase for a new era of UN and Red Cross peacekeeping, clandestine activity, Egyptian counterinsurgency, and one of the first largescale uses of poison gas since WWI. Events in Yemen were not dominated by a single power, nor were they sole products of US-Soviet or Saudi-Egyptian Arab Cold War rivalry. Britain, Canada, Israel, the UN, the US, and the USSR joined Egypt and Saudi Arabia in assuming varying roles in fighting, mediating, and supplying the belligerent forces. Despite Cold War tensions, Americans and Soviets appeared on the same side of the Yemeni conflict and acted mutually to confine Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to the borders of South Arabia. The end of the Yemen Civil War marked the end of both Nasser's Arab Nationalist colonial expansion and the British Empire in the Middle East, two of the most dominant regional forces.

This internationalized conflict was a pivotal event in Middle East history, overseeing the formation of a modern Yemeni state, the fall of Egyptian and British regional influence, another Arab-Israeli war, Saudi dominance of the Arabian Peninsula, and shifting power alliances in the Middle East that continue to lie at the core of modern-day conflicts in South Arabia.

About the speaker/author

Asher Orkaby, PhD is currently a research fellow at the Harvard University Davis Center and a lecturer at Tufts University. He earned his PhD from Harvard University in International History and Middle Eastern Studies and is the author of Beyond the Arab Cold War: The International History of the Yemen Civil War, 1962-68, recently published by Oxford University Press. Over the course of the current conflict in Yemen, he has contributed regularly to Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, and other policy publications and has commented on both US and international media such as CSPAN, CGTN, Waqt News and Al-Hurra.

September 14, 2017.

TASCAM DR-05

Book Talk: Beyond the Arab Cold War: The International History of the Yemen Civil War, 1962-68

Inside the Middle East Q&A Series

 Joost Hiltermann, Program Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group, sits down with Theo Wye, Regional Editor for the Arabian Peninsula and second year Master’s candidate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, to discuss the September 25, 2017 Iraqi Kurdish referendum, the Iraqi and international response, and the future of the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Kurdish National Movement in Iraq and the broader Middle East.

November 14, 2017.

Joost Hiltermann on the Iraq, the Kurdish Referendum and the Future of the Kurdish National Movement

Michael Beckley explains how China’s maritime neighbors can prevent China from dominating East Asia militarily.

Watch highlights from this interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91z49gzRBhc&list=PLp1QSxtgPnf6990FIGczVUXaQd2eDyQLC

Read the article here: https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/emerging-military-balance-east-asia-how-chinas-neighbors-can-check-chinese-naval

The Emerging Military Balance in East Asia — Michael Beckley on IS Author Chats

Patrick Porter explains why the United States continues to pursue a grand strategy of primacy.

Watch highlights from this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omkkkD-p5a8

Read the article: https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/isec_a_00311

Why America’s Grand Strategy Has Not Changed — Patrick Porter on IS Author Chats

Halla Logadóttir, former director of the Iceland School of Energy at Reykjavík University and co-founder of the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative, speaks with Aroop Mukharji (@aroopmukharji) about the future of the Arctic region, sustainability in Iceland, and how Icelanders get their names.

Subscribe to the Belfer Center’s YouTube channel for a new episode of Office Hours each month!

Subscribe to the podcast: http://hvrd.me/K2K330e5mfD

More about Halla Logadóttir: https://www.belfercenter.org/person/halla-hrund-logadottir

Belfer Center website: http://www.belfercenter.org

Listen to the full interview: http://hvrd.me/jeMZ30e5mj1

Halla Logadóttir on the Future of the Arctic Region, Sustainability in Iceland, and Icelandic Names

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3icMPM4

Reid B.C. Pauly explains how declassified records of wargames played by U.S. policymakers can reveal why nuclear weapons have not been used since 1945.

Watch highlights from this interview: https://youtu.be/4tczAmmxjzA

Read the article: https://www.belfercenter.org/index.php/publication/would-us-leaders-push-button-wargames-and-sources-nuclear-restraint

Wargames and the Sources of Nuclear Restraint – Reid B.C. Pauly on IS Author Chats

Transcript: https://bit.ly/34J7AXw

Soli Ozel, Tom and Andi Bernstein Human Rights Fellow, Schell Center, Yale Law School; Lecturer, Political Science Department and International Relations Department, Kadir Has University, Istanbul.

March 12, 2019

Just Don't Know What To Do With Turkish-American Relations

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3pfupMb

Dr. Akihiro Seita, Director of the Health and WHO Special Representative at UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East).

April 4, 2019

Funding Cuts & UNRWA: Health and Dignity of Palestine Refugees at Stake

Transcript: https://bit.ly/2TAJFr8

Ambassador Husam S. Zomlot, Head of the Palestinian Mission to the United Kingdom; Strategic Affairs Advisor to the President of the Palestinian National Authority and State of Palestine.

April 9, 2019

Palestine in the Era of Trump: A New Strategy for Political Change

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3g5PqVc

A seminar with Dr. Randa S. Hamadeh, Director, Primary Healthcare and Social Health department, Ministry of Public Health, Lebanon.

Co-sponsored by the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

April 29, 2019

Resilience Drivers in the Healthcare System in Times of Conflict: The Case of Lebanon

Transcript: https://bit.ly/2Tr52uL

A seminar with Hugh Roberts, Edward Keller Professor of North African and Middle Eastern History, Tufts University.

May 1, 2019

The Algerian Uprising: the People, the Power and the Army

Transcript: https://bit.ly/2SOF83R

A seminar with Soha Bayoumi, Assistant Dean of Harvard College (moderator); Sherine Hafez (University of California, Riverside); Hanan Hammad (Texas Christian University); and Valentine Moghadam (Northeastern University).

May 6, 2019

Feminisms in the Middle East and North Africa

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3uKsWi3

Norman Roule (@Norman_Roule), a 34-year CIA veteran and Middle East expert, sits down with with Aroop Mukharji (@aroopmukharji) to talk about the culture at the CIA, Yemen, and theater.

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Subscribe to the podcast: http://hvrd.me/K2K330e5mfD

More about Norman Roule: https://www.belfercenter.org/person/norman-t-roule

Belfer Center website: http://www.belfercenter.org

Norman Roule on the Culture at the CIA, Yemen, and Theater

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3wQ5EbH

CIA Officer Sunny J.S., a former presidential daily briefer, sits down with with Aroop Mukharji (@aroopmukharji) to talk about CIA myths, the Presidential Daily Brief, and keeping secrets.
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Subscribe to the podcast: http://hvrd.me/K2K330e5mfD

More about the CIA: https://www.cia.gov/index.html

Belfer Center website: http://www.belfercenter.org

CIA Officer Sunny J.S. on CIA Myths, the Presidential Daily Brief, and Keeping Secrets

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.

In 2018, for the fifth year in a row, the Belfer Center was ranked the world's #1 University Affiliated Think Tank by University of Pennsylvania's Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program.

Popular tracks by Belfer Center