From the Director

As the Bush administration chooses key personnel for its second term, it has been a pleasure, though not a surprise, to see several members of the Belfer Center's extended family on the list. I have enjoyed working in several capacities with Robert Zoellick, who has been tapped as Deputy Secretary of State, first when he was a student here and more recently when he spent more than a year at the Center as a Senior Fellow researching U.S. secretaries of state. As Deputy Secretary, he will deal with issues ranging from Iraq and Russia to nuclear terrorism - and he's well prepared for the job.

Our Acting Executive Director for Research Juliette Kayyem has had the opportunity to deliberate about homeland security strategies and views on legal aspects of the "war on terror" with newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff during their service on the multi-year Long-Term Legal Strategy for Combating Terrorism project. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with him in his new position. And just weeks ago, Condi Rice called on Belfer Fellow Ambassador Richard Jones to assist her with the management and development of Iraq policy. We congratulate our colleagues and wish them well in their continued service to the country.

During the past few months, we have been joined by a number of guests who have informed, inspired, and challenged our thinking with views and debates on a range of critical issues. Among the recent visitors: former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Carnegie Endowment President Jessica Tuchman Matthews, former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command General Anthony Zinni, the Council on Foreign Relations' Elizabeth Economy, Pew and Zogby International pollsters Andrew Kohut and John Zogby, "Politics of Truth" author Ambassador Joe Wilson, President Putin's senior economic adviser Andrei Illarionov, award-winning Bare Branches author Valerie Hudson, Deputy of the Russian Duma Andrei Kokoshin, and former KSG Assistant Professor Ambassador Jendayi Frazer.

Over the past several months, several major Belfer policy proposals have entered the U.S. and world stage. Cochair of the National Commission on Energy Policy, John Holdren helped guide the development of an extremely important bipartisan package of U.S. energy policy recommendations. The Commission's consensus plan, which includes original research from the Belfer Center, aims to end the energy stalemate that has kept the United States from moving forward on oil security, climate change, and other major long-term energy challenges.

On the homeland security front, Juliette Kayyem and Harvard Law School's Phil Heymann released the final report of the Long-Term Legal Strategy project which they co-chaired, rolling out recommended legislation to balance American freedoms and security in the "war on terror." Two dozen experts from across the political spectrum came together to develop this set of rules for detentions, interrogations, and other difficult issues to prevent future Abu Ghraib scandals and provide clear guidelines to those on the front lines of fighting terrorism.

In early January, Calestous Juma's UN Task Force on Science, Technology, and Innovation released its final report, "Innovation," calling the world's attention to the need for developing countries to strengthen the ways in which they use science and technology advice and education. The report's release coincided with the tsunami disaster in South Asia, providing a vivid example of the need for innovative technology policy to meet natural and geopolitical challenges of the developing world.

Also this winter, we launched the Governance Initiative in the Middle East to address the issue of governmental transformation in this critical region. In addition to other projects, the governance initiative will provide resources for the newly-established Dubai School of Government. This initiative was the result of four years of planning, and we are very pleased to see all that work come to fruition. We are especially pleased that Ambassador Barbara Bodine has agreed to head up this effort. As former Ambassador to Yemen and a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who has spent most of her diplomatic career in the Middle East, she is the ideal person to work with the scholars and practitioners both here at Harvard and at the new Dubai School to promote training and research to improve governance in the Middle East.

At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, which was well populated with Belfer and other Kennedy School and Harvard scholars, the "town hall" top priorities for the current global agenda tracked closely with the research priorities here at the Belfer Center: climate change, the Middle East, global governance, poverty and its connection with instability, and containing weapons of mass destruction. As we move ahead, we recommit ourselves to advancement of policy-relevant knowledge about each of these critical challenges.