Kennedy School Review

For all the promise of digital government, it has done very little in the Western world to fundamentally alter the structure or processes of the state. Through much of its history, the primary goal of modernization and digitization has been to automate repetitive work or back-office tasks. The paper form became an electronic survey; the […]

“If you control an industry’s standards, you control that industry lock, stock and ledger.”[1] What Are Standards? Before the now-ubiquitous USB drive existed, computers used serial and parallel ports to transfer data from devices like keyboards, mice, and printers. To address this inefficiency, the USB was invented in 1994 by Ajay Bhatt of Intel and […]

In exploring what constitutes an existential risk – something that threatens the extinction of intelligent life – we evaluate the significance of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threat both naturally occurring and manmade.

When it comes to politics, April 2020 may be just as important as November 2020. Why? 1 April 2020 is enumeration day for the 2020 Census, a monumental task the federal government undertakes every ten years to count each and every resident—but this time, part of that count will occur for the first time over […]

Even at Harvard, a liberal Atlanticist bubble where the Marshall Plan was first announced, events to celebrate NATO’s 70th Anniversary celebration were sparsely attended by American students, unlike Europeans who were excited to attend. Expectations for the NATO summit scheduled this month in London were low, and organizers hoped at best to avoid new tensions […]

Of the many possible sites for a heated political showdown, the target federal funds rate hardly registers on the front lines. Yet in December 2018, US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to decry the US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise its benchmark rate. Breaking more than two decades of White House silence on monetary […]

This moment offers a rare opportunity for foreign powers to help break Lebanon’s historical cycles of violence and support demands for a shift to a more robust and representative democracy.

Africa in the 21st century is young, urban, and digitally connected. More than half of all Africans are younger than 20. By mid-century, more Africans will migrate to cities than on any other continent in the world, seeking opportunity across both physical and digital spaces. Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced the highest growth in internet usage […]

It was an ordinary Monday afternoon when some of my colleagues and I at the United Nations Women’s Headquarters in New York suddenly disappeared from our offices in unison. We rushed to a small conference room at lunch with determination in our pace and long lists of ideas and demands in our notepads. After many […]

The increasing humanitarian consequences of climate change and the global refugee crisis have disproportionately affected developing countries.

Since the dawn of the last century, progressive African visionaries have proffered that to achieve economic well-being, African nations must forge a path to prosperity that is independent of Western prescription. Yet, are the continent’s challenges so distinct as to be completely unique from those of the rest of the world? In July 1900, the […]

Every year dozens of students organise ‘treks’ to their home towns and countries. Entirely voluntary and student led, they plan activities to to initiate their fellow students in the culture, politics and history of the place. Samer Hjouj leads the Palestine trek for the Harvard Kennedy School and Phoenix McLaughlin just led a trek to […]