By Tommy Tobin “The West Wing” is a show that led many members of the HKS community to this place and helped to define their public service trajectories. On Friday, March 28th the IOP Forum hosted cast members Bradley Whitford (“Josh Lyman”), Janel Moloney (“Donna Moss”), Richard Schiff (“Toby Ziegler”), and Lawrence O’Donnell to talk […]

BY CROSBY BURNS A preliminary version of this post originally appeared on the Ash Center’s Challenges to Democracy blog Last year the City of Boston unveiled its plans to devote a portion of its capital budget towards a participatory budget, a social innovation that aims to reimagine citizen engagement, the appropriations process, and democratic participation. […]

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Executive Committee Member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), discusses the ongoing peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, and prospects for the future.  You can watch the interview, conducted by Colin Eide, Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and […]

Dr. Suzan Bartels is a co-author of the report ‘Running Out of Time – Survival of Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon’ that was published by FXB center last January.  She is board certified in Emergency Medicine in both the U.S. and Canada and is currently an attending physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as […]

BY VIRIDIANA RIOS, PH.D While the emergence of civilian self-defense groups in Mexico has gained the most attention as a strategy to fight drug cartels, the most profound change in that country’s security strategy has largely passed unnoticed. Early on 2014, Mexico approved an entirely new national code of judicial procedures that will transform the […]

What did you do before you came to the Kennedy School? I’ve had two careers before coming to the Kennedy School.  One more illustrious than the other.  Just after my undergraduate I became a documentary filmmaker and did a lot of adventurous things in my early 20s which were great for dinnertime conversation.  One involved […]

By Tommy Tobin Ramen noodles sometimes get a bad reputation to America’s student population. The word “ramen” conjures up images of foam cups, hot water, and packets of salt-laden seasoning. Yet, ramen noodles can be a flavorful way to get grub around the Cambridge area. The ramen noodle shops near Porter Square are stuff of […]

By Tommy Tobin Lobster rolls are a New England specialty. With Maine just a short drive away, lobster is not too hard to find on the menus of many eateries around Boston. What is harder to find is a place where you can get high quality lobster for a generally reasonable price. Lobster rolls come […]

By Ted Zagraniski Why are the rich getting richer while the poor keep falling further behind? Does it matter, and should we care? During your time at Harvard, questions like these have certainly come up. Maybe it was in class, at an event, or just chatting with friends. For the most part, our answers are […]

By Shimon Shmooely I still remembered the day when my father told me that he had sent money to a Hamas guy. It was after the second Intifada, another round of violent conflict. In these years, we suffered endless terror attacks with hundreds of civilian casualties. At first, I thought that my father, a moderate […]

By David Delmar Imagine my shock when, in the course of a lecture at the Harvard Kennedy School, the class was polled about whether satires of the Prophet Muhammad should be allowed and the overwhelming majority favored censorship, self or otherwise.  Specifically at issue was the “controversy” that erupted years ago when a Danish newspaper […]

By Tommy Tobin Ever wonder what an Ambassador does? Over two dozen HKS students got the answer to this and other questions at a lunch event with former US Ambassador to Australia, Jeffrey Bleich. Bleich, an MPP alumnus, spoke to students on March 13th about an array of topics concerning the US-Australia relationship, including the […]