Global Exchange: International Council members Samer Salty (left) and Peter Aldrich during the annual meeting.

"International Council Engages on Middle East, Energy Transformations"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Summer 2011

The turmoil engulfing the Middle East dominated the two-day gathering of the Belfer Center’s International Council on April 12-13. One panel after another discussed the wide-ranging implications of the Arab Spring, debating potential outcomes and ramifications of the dramatic uprisings as well as the Obama administration’s handling of the serial crises.

Moderated by Council member Albert Carnesale in place of chair James R. Schlesinger, who was unable to attend, discussions focused also on the changing sources and instruments of power in the world, the impact of the media and the web on national security strategy, and the geopolitics of energy and energy technology innovation/transformation.

The annual meeting opened with a dinner presentation by Paul Volcker, Center  board member and former director of the White House National Economic Council. Council members also attended a JFK Jr. Forum presentation by Center member on leave Ashton B. Carter, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics on managing budgets and wars in the Pentagon.

Belfer Center Director Graham Allison announced the creation of an endowed Kennedy School professorship in Schlesinger’s name, noting that lead contributors were Council member Robert A. Hefner III and his wife MeiLi. While at the Kennedy School for the annual meeting, Council member Robert Taubman was recognized with a new portrait hung in the School’s Taubman Center.

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