Nation & World

All Nation & World

  • Calderón cites nation’s progress

    The election that put Felipe Calderón Hinojosa into office as the president of Mexico was a real squeaker — the closest vote in the modern history of his country. It took a couple of months for the federal electoral tribunal to certify him as the winner. Even then his chief opponent wouldn’t concede. An hour before Calderón’s swearing in, leftist opposition lawmakers were throwing punches and even chairs in the legislative chamber, in an attempt to block his inauguration. The whole brawl was carried live on television across Mexico. But that was then. This is now.

  • Security chief cautions against complacency

    If Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was politically wounded by his department’s response to Hurricane Katrina, he showed no sign of it during his forceful lecture Feb. 6 at the Kennedy School of Government.

  • Brazilian Studies welcomes ambassador

    The Brazilian ambassador to the United States, Antonio Patriota, will visit Harvard on Feb. 13 to participate in the University’s new and dynamic Brazil Studies Program’s spring 2008 calendar of events. The ambassador will speak about relations between Brazil and the United States and the new role of Brazil in the global economy and in Latin America, as well as the foreign policy of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Patriota will visit the Center for Government and International Studies (1730 Cambridge St., Room S050) from 12:30 to 2 p.m.

  • KSG launches new program in Greece

    A new Harvard program intended to address the needs of nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders will debut in Greece March 25 through 29 at the Athens Information Technology institute (AIT). The “Strategic Management for Leaders of Non-Governmental Organizations” executive education program is designed for NGO leaders in Southeastern and Eastern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Middle East who are committed to improving the performance of their organizations.

  • New exhibit traces women in business at Harvard

    In its earliest years, the opening of business courses to women was dubbed a “daring experiment” by one Harvard faculty member. It turned out to be a successful experiment as well, one that slowly evolved into the mainstream at Harvard Business School (HBS).

  • ‘Power session’ for women held at the Business School

    “You guys are going to rule the world, mark my words,” Janet Hanson told a captivated audience in the Harvard Business School’s Burden Auditorium. “I’m so bullish on your generation, it’s not funny.”

  • War and changing concepts of masculinity

    The Vietnam War cost the United States just over 58,000 dead — less than 5 percent of the 1.4 million Vietnamese, French, and other military personnel killed in Indochina combat going back to 1950.

  • Royal talks politics with students

    On the eve of Super Tuesday, Harvard students gathered to discuss politics — French politics, that is — with the first woman in French history to run as a major presidential candidate.

  • ‘A good start’

    Late in January, a delegation from Chile visited Harvard to discuss “Un Buen Comienzo” (“A Good Start”), an early childhood education program undertaken in 2006 by the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS), with the Chilean Ministries of Education and Health and other local institutions that impart preschool education. The pilot project and its evaluation, sponsored by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Centro de Estudios Educar, the World Bank, and Unicef, grew out of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet’s stated commitment to make early childhood a priority in her administration.

  • The importance of early education

    Forty-six years ago, a working-class town in Michigan began a program that changed lives. “Mind-blowing,” one scholar called it at Harvard last week.

  • IOP national poll finds youth favor Giuliani, Obama

    A new national poll by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at the Kennedy School of Government finds that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama remain the top choices for president among likely 18- to 24-year-old voters of both parties. Harris Interactive conducted the online survey of 2,526 U.S. citizens for the IOP between Oct. 28 and Nov. 9.

  • Young global leaders unite at Kennedy School in mini-United Nations

    The group was diverse, talented, and cross-cultural: cabinet ministers, high-powered CEOs, and influential journalists sitting side by side addressing some of the most pressing issues facing the globe. A mini-United Nations.

  • Gorbachev calls for new move to eliminate nukes

    Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev called for a renewed commitment to eliminate the world’s nuclear weapons Tuesday (Dec. 4), saying the current generation of world leaders cannot coast on disarmament treaties of the past.

  • Armstrong: God is hard to get to know

    Man’s practical understanding of God, said one religious scholar speaking at Harvard, is “like a goldfish trying to understand a computer. … It will always be beyond us.”

  • Tutu sees lots of negatives, a few positives, in American foreign policy

    Desmond Tutu was a high school teacher in Johannesburg before he entered the ministry, and all these years later he is still very much the pedagogue. “Good afternoon,” he said…

  • Atrocities attract healing hands to the Congo

    The rape itself was brutal enough, but the woman’s nearly severed hand shocked Susan Bartels.

  • Sanders Theatre features talk on building schools for peaceful world

    In the remote and mountainous Baltistan region of Pakistan, the beverage of choice is paiyu cha, a mixture of green tea, salt, baking soda, goat’s milk, and a rancid yak butter called mar.

  • Buddhism and the art of negotiation

    Would the Buddha be an effective arbiter in a complicated and contentious land trust dispute or a messy divorce? For many experts, the answer is a resounding yes.

  • HLS: When legal scholars become media stars

    Sharp wit, high energy, and laughter were tempered by serious undertones and a message for law students considering a future in journalism last week (Nov. 8) at the Harvard Law School (HLS).

  • Researcher finds roots of fundamentalism in 16th century Bible translations

    The English Reformation — heyday of religious change — spurred a fundamentalist approach to Bible reading, according to new research by a Harvard professor.

  • Closing the ‘achievement gap’

    The achievement gap in American K-12 schools is well-documented, and is characterized by racial and class differences.

  • Islam in the contemporary world: Questions of interpretation

    “Interpreting the Islamic Tradition in the Contemporary World” was the title of the gathering, the first annual Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program Conference.

  • Scholars ask, ‘How does gender affect negotiation?’

    To most of us, negotiation is a way of getting happily to the end of a problem. As in: Who’s going to do the dishes tonight? Let’s talk.

  • Sovereignty vs. global responsibility

    As part of Harvard Business School’s International Week, an annual event to highlight the cultural diversity at the School, Srgjan Kerim, president of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, delivered the keynote address at the Spangler Auditorium on Oct. 25.

  • KSG panel: Early campaigning takes voter toll

    The intense media coverage of a small group of presidential hopefuls is prematurely narrowing the field of worthy nominees, many political experts claim.

  • Dowd works the crowd at White Lecture

    Journalism, the saying goes, is the first draft of history.

  • Vermont and New Hampshire, geographic twins, cultural aliens

    Ever wonder about Vermont and New Hampshire?

  • Looking at China’s role in Africa

    China’s increasing influence in Africa is a double-edged sword that wields the potential for prosperity and despair.

  • A vision of collaboration, mutual respect

    Harvard and South Asia go way back.

  • Chidambaram talks about ‘rich poor’ India

    At 60 years old, India is a young nation. It is also a country that is both rich and poor.