Nation & World

For all of their differences, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney share an important quality: their outsider status as politicians. But as Harvard Business School’s Gautam Mukunda argues in a new book, the very trait that makes them likely to be high-impact leaders also makes them unpredictable.

Gary Knell, CEO of NPR, described the station’s efforts toward a multimedia future in a talk at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

Harvard has rolled out its first two courses on the new digital education platform edX, with more than 100,000 learners worldwide signing on.

Four Harvard experts — on voice, movement, public speaking, and trial law — critique the last presidential debate and offer the candidates their tips for the next matchup.

In a talk sponsored by Harvard Divinity School, four religious scholars explored the question of “Religion and the Election: Does it Matter?”

Despite a grim situation now, says the Harvard-trained leader of Tibet’s government in exile, frank talks could yet unlock decades of turmoil with China.

A new analysis of 37 national opinion polls conducted by 17 survey organizations finds that health care is the second most important issue for likely voters in deciding their 2012 presidential vote. This is the highest that health care has been ranked as a presidential election issue since 1992.

Harvard Business School students gathered Tuesday evening to kick off a yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first class of female M.B.A.s. But as Barnard College President Debora Spar reminded the group, women at the top of the ladder still face hurdles — including their impossible demands on themselves.

Political pundit, author, and Supreme Court watcher Jeffrey Toobin offered an inside look at the nation’s top judicial body during a discussion at Sanders Theatre on Thursday.

Veteran political strategists weighed in on the blood, sweat, and tears that go into prepping a presidential candidate, during a Harvard Kennedy School watch party for the first presidential debate. The vice presidential debate is 9-10 p.m. Oct. 11 from Centre College, Danville, Ky. The second presidential debate is 9-10:30 p.m. Oct. 16, Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, spoke at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Monday, outlining his plan for a “transformative” approach to the country’s ailing primary and secondary education system.

Former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez called for innovative solutions to the nation’s housing crisis and proposed less government, more private-sector initiative, and clarity on Dodd-Frank financial reforms.

A new website at the Harvard Kennedy School marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. In an interview, Belfer Center director Graham Allison outlines the lessons learned from the dangerous yet deft dance of diplomacy.

Students from across Harvard’s Schools gathered at the Innovation Lab Sept. 28-30 for the StartUp Scramble, a mad-dash affair designed to take their business ideas from concept to pitch in just 48 hours.

Author and Harvard Law School graduate John Osborn Jr. rose to fame in the ’70s with the publication of his book “The Paper Chase” about his experience at the School. He sat down for a Q-and-A session with Dean Martha Minow on the book’s 40th anniversary.

Hosted by the Nieman Foundation, a panel of political journalists shared their insights with Harvard faculty members, including their predictions about the outcome in the race for the White House.

Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi delivered the Godkin Lecture and took questions from students last night at Harvard Kennedy School.

A top European Union official says there are signs that reform measures taken in response to the economic crisis in Europe are working, and that a recovery could begin in 2013.

Jan Fischer, former PM and current presidential candidate in the Czech Republic, talked to a Harvard audience about the debt crisis and the possibility of a full European federation.

Speaking at the Harvard Kennedy School, journalist Rami Khouri presented an overview of the “bewildering and exhilarating changes” that have swept the Middle East since the Arab Spring.

Postindustrial countries from Japan to Italy are experiencing startling low birthrates, but the entry of women into the workforce isn’t to blame, according to Sociology Professor Mary Brinton, whose research looks at more subtle factors, including attitudes toward men’s and women’s roles in the workplace and the home.

A Tunisian constitutional expert said Sept. 17 that recent violence, coupled with moves by the ruling Islamist Ennahda party to enshrine religion in the nation’s new constitution, are a bad sign for a pluralistic, democratic future.

Four words on a previously unknown papyrus fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married, a Harvard professor says.

Four words on a previously unknown papyrus fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus had been married, Harvard Professor Karen King told the 10th International Congress of Coptic Studies, September 18, 2012.

Scholars from across the nation gathered at Harvard on Friday to examine the persistent problems of race, poverty, and economic inequality in the United States. The conference was focused around the 25th anniversary of the publication of “The Truly Disadvantaged” by University Professor William Julius Wilson.

Should citizens have to show photo identification to vote? In recent years, many states have decided they do. A group of panelists debated the hotly partisan issue — and the possible implications for poor and elderly voters — at Harvard Kennedy School.

Murhaf Jouejati, a professor and a member of the Syrian National Council, a coalition of exiled opposition groups, offered his perspective on the crisis in Syria.

The public health lessons of 9/11 and subsequent anthrax attacks haven’t been learned, said Pulitzer Prize-winning author Laurie Garrett during a talk at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Super PAC App, the brainchild of recent Harvard Kennedy School graduate Jennifer Hollett and her MIT classmate, gives voters information on the big-money donors behind this season’s campaign ads in real time.

Nieman Foundation welcomes 24 new fellows, including some who tell their gripping stories using tools beyond words.