By Ben Goldsmith, MPA’13, Correspondent Editor’s Note: This column was written in response to the April 8 story by Alexi White entitled, We have more to contribute than money: Why I won’t be donating to the HKS Fund. We HKS students want to change the world. We want more women students and faculty on campus. […]

By Anthony Barrows, MC/MPA’13, Staff Writer We’ve all been there. We were celebrating a friend’s birthday; then festivities hit a snag. The plan may be to hit a popular (read: trendy and overhyped) spot in the Back Bay for dinner, dancing and drinks. However, the group faces a long line, in the cold, and menacing […]

By Nick Wilson, MPP’14, Staff Writer While picking up my badge at the Boston Convention Center, I was asked if I desired a tour of the floor. “No time,” I replied. “I’m here for the US Barista Championship and defending champion Katie Carguilo is about to compete in the semi-finals. Point me in that direction.” […]

By The Citizen Staff The second floor study space of Taubman was transformed into a space befitting its name – The Lounge – on Thursday night when 40 odd students huddled together in the cozy space to celebrate Open Mic Night. Organized by Pipeline, a group started in 2010 composed currently of MPP students, the […]

By The Citizen Staff The student government has marked the last week of April (22-27) for ‘Around the World’ – a week-long celebration of the domestic and international diversity at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS).  International students make up about 40 percent of the student body at HKS, with the other 60 percent representing diverse communities […]

By Ishani Mehta, MPP’14, News Editor Last month, I had the opportunity to attend an invigorating talk by Harvard alumnus Horacio Rodríguez Larreta who serves as the dynamic Chief of Cabinet in the Buenos Aires City Government in Argentina.  The talk, titled “The Challenge of Transforming Buenos Aires”, drew insights from Larreta’s public service career […]

Rami George Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. His journalistic work includes writing books and an internationally syndicated column, and he also serves as editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily […]

Abstract: The Arabian Gulf region has the most prodigious energy reserves in the world. However, the region’s massive industrialization and expanding demography are also increasing energy consumption at unsustainable rates, leading to natural gas deficits across the region. This article argues that the pressures of economic development and industrial diversification are steadily eroding the comparative […]

By The Citizen Staff Two explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday thrust the city into the international spotlight this week; as media outlets from around the world flooded in to report the story, dignitaries – including President Barack Obama – offered condolences, and a carjacking early Friday morning led to a day-long […]

By Nathan Finney and Billy Pope, MC/MPA’13 As my hands were burning from the hot dishwater and my eyes filled with tears listening to a nation’s leader console his people, I was also laughing out loud at a more base, yet more real form of healing. Over curt words of profanity and good-natured inter-service rivalry, […]

The development challenges for contemporary democratic states of Africa are enormous. This somewhat sweeping phrase takes for granted the question of whether those countries claiming to be democratic are so in organisation and practice. For instance, only Mauritius was categorised as full democracy out of 44 sub-Saharan African countries evaluated in Democracy Index, 2010; 8 […]

Though people tend to see themselves as objective interpreters of the world, they are often active self-deceivers. Self-deception is a psychological process whereby one selectively chooses knowledge that confirms a positive self bias. Affecting people on an individual and group level, self-deception can have destructive consequences. It is thus important to understand self-deception’s role in […]