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Healthcare in Focus: Political Hurdles and Policy Progress in Africa

On April 23, the final session examined healthcare access policies and public health initiatives across Africa. In our discussions, we explored the politics of health and healthcare policy, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. We identified political barriers to expanding healthcare coverage and access, and the dialogue centered on areas of progress in addressing infectious and chronic diseases. Beyond focusing on the challenges in implementing effective healthcare policies, in this session we invited participants to propose policy solutions as we look towards the future. The study group counted with the presence of external expert guest Dr. Salma Abdalla. Dr. Abdalla is a Sudanese medical doctor and Assistant Professor in Global Health and Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. She was the Director of the Rockefeller-Boston University 3-D Commission on Determinants of health, Data science, and Decision making. She also served as a secretariat member for the WHO Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Katie Chen, Master in Public Administration/ International Development Candidate at Harvard Kennedy School, delivered a memo briefing on how to boost childhood immunization rates in African countries, including through increased vaccine manufacturing, drone delivery., and behavioural interventions to combat vaccine hesitancy.




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Database on U.S. Department of Energy Budgets for Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration (1978–2025R)

The July 2024 update to our database on the U.S. government investments in energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (ERD3) through the U.S. Department of Energy.




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A Failure of Security and Democracy

Juliette Kayyem writes that politicians and security experts, especially those focused on the upcoming conventions in Milwaukee and Chicago and future political rallies, must now reckon with the evident mismatch between what we know about political violence—it is pervasive and indiscriminate, according to the FBI—and how we plan for it.




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Current and Future Arctic Cooperation: Where to Next?

Viktoria Waldenfels MPA 2025 reflects on promising ways forward for Arctic cooperation.

This study group, led by Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Margaret Williams, is evaluating the costs and benefits of renewing cooperation with Russia on science and conservation issues.




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What Do Africa and the Arctic Have in Common? A Lot, It Turns Out

As the climate crisis intensifies, demand is surging for minerals needed to manufacture clean energy technologies. In the race to secure supplies of critical minerals, Africa and the Arctic have taken center stage as companies and governments around the world eye their vast mineral deposits. These seemingly disparate regions now face the same question: how to capitalize on their mineral wealth while maximizing the socioeconomic benefits and minimizing the environmental harms of mining.




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International Trade and Climate Change Policy: A Conversation with Robert Lawrence

The rise of political populism and economic protectionism are serious barriers impeding efforts to combat global climate change. Robert Lawrence, the Albert Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment at Harvard Kennedy School, expressed those concerns in the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.”




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Land Use Policy and Climate Change: A Conversation with Charles Taylor

The ways in which land use and environmental policies intersect with natural resource sustainability and climate change was the focus of discussion in the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program” featuring Charles Taylor, assistant professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School. The podcast is produced by the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.




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Democratic Transitions and Conflict Zones: The Impact on Policy-Making in Africa

On March 26, the study group met for the first time to examine recent democratic progress and backsliding in African countries. The session focused on ongoing conflicts in different regions of Africa and examined their political underpinnings. Participants also discussed the role of third-party actors in supporting and facilitating conflict mediation and peacebuilding efforts in the continent. The study group counted with the presence of external expert guest Dr. Antje Herrberg, Chief of Staff of the European Union Capacity Building Mission in Niger (EUCAP Sahel Niger). Dr. Herrberg brings more than two decades of professional and personal experience in transition and conflict resolution, intractable conflict, and terrorism with a deep interest to alleviate the suffering of people. Furthermore, Florian Dirmayer, Master in Public Policy Candidate at Harvard Kennedy School, delivered a memo briefing on European Union Security Cooperation with Niger After the 2023 Military Coup.




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Politics and Prosperity: Examining Economic Development in Africa

On April 9, the study group met for the third time to examine economic development in Africa. The group explored connections between politics and economic growth trajectories across the continent, and analyzed the role of political instability and policy decisions in fostering development. Discussions covered the impact of factors like commodity markets, foreign aid, trade deals, and regional integration initiatives on development indicators. The study group counted with the presence of external expert guest H.E. Patrick Achi, former Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire. Prime Minister Achi shared about his experience at the highest level of government and presented the story of Côte d’Ivoire’s post-independence development as a microcosm of the broader challenges and opportunities facing African nations.




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Climate Change: Political Implications and Policy Response in Africa

The fourth session addressed the pressing issue of climate change and its political implications in Africa. This session highlighted the disproportionate impact of climate change effects on African nations and how governments are responding through policy measures. A significant focus of the discussion was placed on current climate financial models and the challenges to accessing funding for renewable energy and electrification projects in Africa. The study group counted with the presence of external expert speaker Ely Sandler, Fellow at the Belfer Center. Ely has worked as a senior consultant at the World Bank and previously at Morgan Stanley for nearly a decade. Policy proposals that Ely developed at Harvard were presented at COP27 and are now being adopted by the World Bank and UAE COP28 Presidency, with the hope of catalyzing trillions of dollars of green investment, in part through Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.




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Iran and Israel's Dangerous Gambit

Nicole Grajewski analyzes Iran and Israel's shift from a long-simmering shadow conflict to direct confrontation.




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Challenging Biases and Assumptions in Analysis: Could Israel Have Averted Intelligence Failure?

The human tragedy continuing to unfold in Gaza and Israel reminds us how important it is to get strategic forecasting right. While in no way excusing Hamas’ culpability for 7 October, we also cannot dismiss the fact that the failure to anticipate and prepare for such an attack has had grave consequences for communities on both sides of this conflict, undermined efforts to bring peace and prosperity to the region, and affected global interests through the expansion of the conflict to the Red Sea and potentially beyond. 




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What America's Palestine Protesters Should and Shouldn't Do

Stephen Walt advises protesters that people who haven't made up their minds yet are usually attracted by facts, logic, reason, and evidence. In his experience, they are turned off by anger, rudeness, intolerance, and especially by anyone who interferes with their own desire to learn more.




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Not So Innocent: Clerics, Monarchs, and the Ethnoreligious Cleansing of Western Europe

Ethnic cleansing is not only a modern phenomenon. The medieval Catholic Church saw non-Christians as a threat and facilitated the ethnoreligious cleansing of Muslim and Jewish communities across Western Europe. Three conditions made this possible: The rising power of the papacy as a supranational religious authority; its dehumanization of non-Christians; and competition among Catholic Western European monarchs that left them vulnerable to papal-clerical demands to eradicate non-Christians. These findings revise our understanding twentieth- and twenty-first-century ethnic cleansing in places like Cambodia, Iraq, Myanmar, the Soviet Union, and Syria.




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Africa Beyond the Headlines: A Kaleidoscopic Exploration of Contemporary African Politics and International Cooperation

Dr. Gloria Ayee led a study group over the course of five sessions during the Spring of 2024, exploring the current pivotal moment on the African continent. Participants of the study group were invited to reflect on the role that international cooperation must play in supporting inclusive, sustainable development in Africa, as well as to move beyond outdated perspectives and learn about Africa’s profound transformation through trade, investments in clean energy and health, and youth empowerment initiatives.




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Beyond the Headlines: A Kaleidoscopic Exploration of Contemporary African Politics and International Cooperation

Dr. Gloria Ayee led a study group over the course of five sessions during the Spring of 2024, exploring the current pivotal moment on the African continent. Reflecting back, Dr. Ayee highlights the key takeaways from the study group.




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Iran and Nuclear Verification: 20 Years of Continuing Sturm and Drang

Report by Trevor Findlay about recent politics surrounding the Iranian Nuclear Program.




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Russia's Invasion of Ukraine and Its Impact on the Global Nuclear Order

Mariana Budjeryn presents "Russia's Invasion of Ukraine and Its Impact on the Global Nuclear Order" at the DOE/NNSA Administrator's Strategy Forum




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The Enormous Risks and Uncertain Benefits of an Israeli Strike Against Iran's Nuclear Facilities

Assaf Zoran argues that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities may have the opposite result of prompting an escalation in Iran’s nuclear developments, a pattern previously observed in response to kinetic actions attributed to Israel.




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Old and New Lessons from the Ukraine War

Joseph Nye Russia's war on Ukraine is still raging, and no one knows when or how it will end. Nonetheless, the past two years have borne out several predictions concerning what does and does not work in twenty-first-century conflicts involving major powers.




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AI and the Decision to Go to War: Future Risks and Opportunities

This short article introduces our Special Issue on 'Anticipating the Future of War: AI, Automated Systems, and Resort-to-Force Decision Making'. The authors begin by stepping back and briefly commenting on the current military AI landscape. They then turn to the hitherto largely neglected prospect of AI-driven systems influencing state-level decision making on the resort to force.




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Russia and the Global Nuclear Order

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine illuminated the long profound shadow of nuclear weapons over international security. Russia's nuclear threats have rightfully garnered significant attention because of the unfathomable lethality of nuclear weapons. However, the use of such weapons in Ukraine is only one way—albeit the gravest— that Russia could challenge the global nuclear order. Russia's influence extends deep into the very fabric of this order—a system to which it is inextricably bound by Moscow's position in cornerstone institutions such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). From withdrawing from key treaties to stymieing resolutions critical of misconduct, Moscow has demonstrated its ability to challenge the legitimacy, relevance, and interpretations of numerous standards and principles espoused by the West.




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Event Debrief: Sarah Ladislaw on U.S. Foreign Policy on Energy and Climate

Harvard Kennedy School hosted Sarah Ladislaw, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Climate and Energy of the U.S. National Security Council, for an Energy Policy Seminar on the U.S. approach to energy and climate issues in its foreign policy.




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Energy, Geopolitics, and Climate Change: A Conversation with Meghan O'Sullivan

International relations expert Meghan O'Sullivan, the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, expressed her hopes for achieving successful international climate policy solutions in the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.”




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Event Debrief: Planning the Mid-Transition for Just and Sustainable Decarbonization

Emily Grubert, Associate Professor of Sustainable Energy Policy and of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, discussed the dangers of an unplanned transition from a fossil-based energy system to a zero-carbon energy system during a talk at Harvard Kennedy School.




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The New Influencers: A Primer on the Expanding Role of Middle Powers in Africa

This original primer, conducted as research for The Africa Futures Project, is an initial exploration into the evolving roles and increasing influence of “middle powers” in Africa. It covers a diverse array of existing and aspiring middle powers, presenting key points for each nation under four distinct analytical lenses.




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Blu� Homes Partners with Real Simple and This Old House to Launch the �Design Smart, Live Beautifully� Home Tour and Announce the Selection of Blu�s L.A. Breezehouse as the First-Ever 

The �Design Smart, Live Beautifully� Home Tour coincides with the launch of the 2014 model of Blu�s award-winning�Breezehouse, which is�packed with luxurious features and an even more spacious floor plan




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Former Residents of Huronia, Rideau, and Southwestern Regional Centres Could Receive Compensation from Class Action Settlements - Settlement Overview Video

Settlement Overview Video. If you lived at Huronia, Rideau, or Southwestern Regional Centres, you may be eligible to make a claim.




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International Automakers Now Account for 45% of U.S. Auto Production and 59% of U.S. Vehicle Sales - Redefining the American Auto Industry

Redefining the American Auto Industry. - The Growing Impact of International Automakers on the U.S. Economy.





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In Honor of Its One-Year Anniversary, Barclaycard Arrival Improves Travel Rewards and Benefits Program and Introduces Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® - Barclaycard Arrival Plus now with EMV

Barclaycard Arrival Plus now with EMV







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CrissCross Expands Representative Payee Services to Serve as a National Resource for Qualified Beneficiaries - CrissCross Representative Payee Services

CrissCross Representative Payee Services




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Survey Finds Gap Between Home Protection Concerns And Consumer Actions - Kristin Chenoweth Protect It Or Lose It Video

Kristin Chenoweth teamed up with Allstate to quiz homeowners on the value of the possessions in their home - see what they know, and don't know!




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T. Rowe Price: Boys And Girls Not Equally Prepared For Financial Future - T. Rowe Price Survey Key Findings

T. Rowe Price Survey Key Findings





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Smart is Evolving: Efficient High-rise Changes Corporate Landscape with 'Urban Genius' Concept - Video OneTitle

Virtual tour of 350 Fifth, a new 20-story office building in one of the top-ranked U.S. cities for sustainable buildings. Pt. 1 Pittsburgh-Gateway to the World & 350 Fifth Urban Genius.




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Blu� Homes Breezehouse: Awarded First-Ever "2014 Dream Home of the Year", by Real Simple and This Old House - Blu Homes Breezehouse is the Real Simple and This Old House "2014 Dream Home of the Year."

Blu Homes Breezehouse is the Real Simple and This Old House "2014 Dream Home of the Year."





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U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, and the Ad Council Launch New Public Service Ads to Reach Struggling Homeowners - Get mortgage help. This is why. MakingHomeAffordable.gov :60

Get mortgage help. This is why. MakingHomeAffordable.gov :60




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JOHN SCULLEY LAUNCHES NEW BOOK AND MULTIMEDIA BUSINESS LEARNING SERIES TO HELP ENTREPRENEURS BUILD TRANSFORMATIVE BILLION DOLLAR BUSINESSES - John Sculley introduces his new multimedia business[...]

John Sculley introduces his new multimedia business learning series �How to Build a Successful Business�




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What happens when planning and preparation pay off at a time when you need it the most? - John Peden - #NMClientStory

John Peden - #NMClientStory