James F. Smith

Martha Stewart Photo

November 15, 2011

"Information and Communications Technology and Public Policy: The Next Wave"

Event Summary

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Industry and academic experts from Harvard, MIT, and other Boston-area universities met for a three-day conference in September 2011 to examine policy choices facing the fast-changing field of information and communications technology at the intersection of public policy. The conference was convened by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affair’s Information and Communications Technology and Public Policy Project (ICTPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Photo by Sharon Wilke

May 19, 2011

"Nuclear Threats, Then and Now"

Magazine or Newspaper Article, Harvard Gazette

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

In 1985, researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School published a book called “Hawks, Doves, and Owls,” and gave it an ambitious subtitle: “An Agenda for Avoiding Nuclear War.” Those scholars gathered again at the School on Monday (May 16) for a seminar on the current challenges in avoiding nuclear war — and to marvel at just how drastically the nuclear threat has morphed in the two decades since the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union collapsed.

Sharon Wilke

May 10, 2011

Brazil sees new role for G20 in Foreign Policy

Media Feature

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Brazil’s longest-serving foreign minister, Celso Amorim, says a change in attitude allowed Brazil to join the ranks of the world’s emerging powers.

In the early 1990s, he recalled, an article described Brazil as a country that punched below its weight. “Now I read in the Brazilian media that Brazil punches above its weight,” Amorim told a seminar at Harvard Kennedy School on April 28.

February 11, 2011

"UK Ambassador says foreign aid spared budget cuts"

Media Feature

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

"Despite the steep budget cuts imposed by the new conservative-led government, British foreign aid is being maintained so that Britain can retain its influence in the world, the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the United States, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, told a Harvard Kennedy School audience."

Sharon Wilke

September 30, 2010

US Deputy Secretary of State: Arctic region will be next international strategic challenge

Media Feature

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

For US Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg, the Arctic is a strategic hot spot that usefully illustrates the challenges and opportunities facing the Obama Administration as it recalibrates US foreign policy.

Belfer Center Photo

September 30, 2010

General Barry McCaffrey: Much at stake for US in Mexico's battle against deadly drug cartels

Media Feature

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Retired Army General Barry McCaffrey has closely followed events in Mexico since he was the White House anti-drug czar in the 1990s, and he has never been so worried. The violence generated by the drug cartels has grown so deadly, McCaffrey says, and the police and prosecutors are under such sustained attack, "that if it were not for the armed forces, Mexico's institutions would be fundamentally at peril."

Belfer Center Photo

September 21, 2010

Richard Clarke on Cyber Threats: Defense is Key

Media Feature

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Richard Clarke, Faculty Affiliate, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Security expert Richard A. Clarke offers stark examples in arguing that the threats of cyberwar and cyberespionage are not just science-fiction hype.

May 16, 2013

David Hamburg on Giving Peace a Chance

News

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

When Dr. David A. Hamburg led the Carnegie Corporation of New York in the 1980s and ‘90s, he drew on his roots as a physician to foster projects and research that advanced a simply stated goal: “the prevention of rotten outcomes.”

Now in his late 80s, Hamburg is still putting his medical instincts to work. He is discovering new ways to use early-prevention methods to avoid deadly conflict and enable healthy human development.

Hamburg spoke at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs on May 3 about his new book, Give Peace a Chance. His son and co-author, filmmaker Eric Hamburg, joined him at the event, along with two Harvard friends, Law School Dean Martha Minow and Belfer Center Director Graham Allison.

January 29, 2013

President Obama's WMD "Czar" Appointed Executive Director of Belfer Center

News

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Gary Samore, President Obama’s Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction Counter-Terrorism and Arms Control, has been appointed Executive Director (Research) for Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. A former fellow with the Belfer Center's International Security Program, Samore has served for the past four years as the principal advisor to the President on all matters relating to arms control and the prevention of weapons of mass destruction proliferation and WMD terrorism. 

January 25, 2013

"Belfer Center Ranks High in Global Think Tank Survey"

News

By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

For the third straight year, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has been ranked among the top university-affiliated think tanks in the world. The 2012 version of the annual survey, conducted by the International Relations Program at the University of Pennsylvania and released Jan. 24, ranks the Belfer Center second in the university-affiliated category, behind the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A year earlier, the No. 1 and No. 2 rankings were reversed, with Belfer Center ranked first.