The following is a creative reflection written by Mihir Mankad, MC-MPA’13. An Oasis…of intellectual stimulation and reinvention! What is this amazingly resourced and dynamic world that we were thrust in? As a student who came from the other end of the world, from a land of stark contrasts and intense poverty, the “gift” of an […]

By Nathan Finney, MC-MPA’13, Assistant News Editor Politics is infused in everything we did this year at the Kennedy School; from classes on becoming a politician and managing campaigns, to Forum events with foreign dignitaries and workshops on the arts of communication.  Even the school motto, Ask What You Can Do, is focused on the […]

Abstract This article examines regulatory policy of cryptography in Africa. Some consider public availability of strong cryptography to be a civil right. Whether used to protect sensitive information or verify identities, individuals and corporations alike benefit from cryptographic software in a world that is becoming increasingly networked. By the same token, users of cryptography might commit […]

This summer, HKS students are traveling to all corners of the world to work on policymaking, advise nonprofits or conduct research. The ‘Summer Snapshots’ is a portrait of these experiences in which students — in their own words — share their stories, musings and reflections.  Fernando Berdion del Valle is  interning at a startup incubator in Mexico […]

By Chrissie Long, Staff Writer Responding to criticism of a dissertation written by a former PhD student on the IQs of immigrants, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Richard Zeckhauser defended the thesis, saying the “empirical work was careful.” “None of his advisors would have accepted his thesis had he thought that his empirical work was tilted or […]

The following statement was released by Harvard Kennedy School Dean David Ellwood on Friday: “I most certainly understand that this issue, as reported, troubles many people.  In response I offer three thoughts.  First, the views and conclusions of any graduate of this school are theirs alone, and do not represent the views of Harvard or […]

BY VIRIDIANA RIOS At an undetermined time, somewhere in Mexico, a violent war among drug cartels erupted. For too long it was difficult to elaborate—with absolute certainty—on that statement. Just after the turn of the millennium, drug lords who had “peacefully” conducted operations to introduce cocaine and other illegal substances into the United States since […]

BY ABIGAIL BELLOWS If you are a child in India under the age of five, there is a 42 percent chance you are suffering from malnutrition. According to Reuters, every day across India, three-thousand children your age will die as a result. The government of India runs the world’s largest food distribution system for the […]

BY JONATHAN E. HILLMAN A Book Review of Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present by Max Boot.  If there was ever a funeral for U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates delivered the eulogy. In February 2011, as reported in the New York Times, Gates told cadets […]

BY MARK DIAZ TRUMAN I was a junior in college before football fandom got its hooks into me. A few friends and I bonded over my fledgling love for the Denver Broncos, one of the only sports teams close enough to my home state of New Mexico to catch my interest. On Sundays we would […]

BY IRENE SHIH Much has been made this year about Zero Dark Thirty, Hollywood’s first stab at dramatizing the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) hunt for Osama bin Laden. Even Graham Allison, professor of government and founding dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, has written about the Oscar-nominated film. A […]

Anne-Marie Slaughter is the Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 2009 to 2011 she served as Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State, the first woman to hold that position. Hanna Siegel is a 2013 Master in Public Policy candidate at the John […]