Northern America

BY STEVEN BRANDT A few weeks ago, right after the Mandalay Bay shooting in Las Vegas, I traveled to Dallas to see my grandfather…

BY MATTHEW ERIC SPECTOR Throughout a fraught 2017, my home state of New Jersey has been frequently, even exquisitely, dragged through the mud on the national stage. Governor Chris Christie will leave office as the most unpopular governor in the state’s history. This summer, Christie even outed himself as a “shoobie,” a term Jersey natives […]

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico causing widespread destruction, including the total loss of the power grid and potable water systems. It was the most powerful hurricane to hit the island in almost 90 years. “Make no mistake — this is a humanitarian disaster involving 3.4 million US citizens,” Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo […]

BY HUBERT WU Many major shortcomings of economic policy making can be attributed to an over-reliance on “one-size-fits-all” policies that ignore differences in countries, industries, and individuals. Until the early 21st century, the accepted means to increase the wealth of developing countries centered on a set of largely standardized policy prescriptions. At the industry level, […]

“My apartment is everything I prayed for when I was locked up,” Morgan[1] says, his brown eyes twinkling. “Do you want to see it?” Morgan pulls his phone from his back pocket, turns the screen toward me, and opens a photograph of a bright galley kitchen with a couple of pots resting on the electric […]

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria swept through Puerto Rico, leaving 3.4 million people without power and with scarce access to potable drinking water and food. Two weeks later, less than 50% of people can access clean water and only 5% have power.  Due to the slow response, it is unclear when electricity will be restored, let […]

Thirteen days ago, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics offered a visiting fellowship to Chelsea Manning. Two days later, Doug Elmendorf, Dean of the Kennedy School, rightfully withdrew the fellowship. But the invitation should never have been extended in the first place. In 2013, Manning was convicted of espionage for leaking 750,000 sensitive military […]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement that President Trump has decided to rescind DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, came as a shock to some and is disappointing to us. Although DACA recipients come from places as wide-ranging as Jamaica and the Philippines, the vast majority of them are from Latinx communities. (Latinx is […]

BY NATALIA COTE-MUÑOZ, MEREDITH DAVIS, AND KRISTELL MILLÁN This piece was written by the Co-Chairs of the Harvard Kennedy School Latinx Caucus and can also be found on the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy blog here. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement that President Trump has decided to rescind DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, came […]

Agile, iterative, pilot, scrum—these phrases may be common in the world of software development, but one would hardly expect to hear them tossed around the austere marble corridors of state government.  Yet they are common parlance in the Massachusetts Governor’s Office, where a nimble squad of problem-solvers is using every cutting-edge tool in the toolbox […]

Paul LePage (R-ME) is America’s most conservative governor, and a reliable headline. For ten weeks this summer, he was also my boss. After years of talking the bipartisan talk, I was ready to walk the bipartisan walk as Maine’s inaugural Dukakis Fellow. Beyond building a résumé that joins Michael Dukakis (D-MA) and Paul LePage in […]

On July 26, 2017, President Trump took to Twitter to proclaim that transgender individuals are prohibited from serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. The directive caused a flurry of activity at the Pentagon. LGBTQ news sources began reporting on Friday, August 4, that a guidance document was on its way to Secretary of Defense Mattis […]