The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a graduate and professional school that brings together students, scholars, and practitioners who combine thought and action to make the world a better place. Our mission is to improve public policy and public leadership across the United States and around the world so that people can lead safer, freer, and more prosperous lives. Harvard Kennedy School teaches current and future leaders the skills they need to effectively advance the public purpose in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Our renowned faculty and trailblazing research centers pioneer bold new ideas. And as the most international school at Harvard, we convene global leaders in the Forum, host visiting experts in the classroom, and attract a diverse community of faculty, students, and staff.
Aminta Ossom, Harvard University; Harvard Kennedy School
A court ruling expands the options for corporate accountability efforts against oil companies in France, and it may have repercussions in the US and elsewhere.
Citizens attend a City Council hearing in Pocatello, Idaho, to discuss the prospect of a new $2.6 billion data center in their community.
Natalie Behring/Getty Images
As sea ice melts, more of the Arctic Ocean opens up. A former ambassador explains how this treaty creates time for scientists to figure out what lives there.
Police clear the campus of Brooklyn College on May 8, 2025, after students established an encampment to protest the Gaza war.
Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Rabia Akhtar, Harvard Kennedy School; University of Lahore
Weeks of fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan has resulted in hundreds being killed.
A satellite photograph shows construction work and buildings at a site known as Pickaxe Mountain, which is believed to store Iranian nuclear material and equipment.
Satellite image (c) 2026 Vantor via Getty Images
The war in Iran has cut off diplomatic efforts to limit the country’s development of nuclear weapons. Securing that material and equipment in other ways would be difficult and dangerous.
Russian ballistic missiles roll in Red Square during a Victory Day military parade.
AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
The expiration of the New START treaty has the US and Russia poised to increase the number of their deployed strategic nuclear weapons, pushing the world into dangerous territory.
Generative AI is enabling people to swamp all manner of institutions with documents, forms and messages.
sekulicn/E+ via Getty Images
People are using generative AI to flood courts with filings, legislatures with constituent letters and publications with submissions. AI detectors are no silver bullet.
Workers install an air-source heat pump at a home in Charlotte, Vt.
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
AI companies are gearing up to follow the social media model of monetizing their platforms through advertising. The danger for consumers with AI goes beyond data privacy to covert manipulation.
On a collision course?
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Ghana and India are rekindling a decades old relationship
Activists in Seattle gather signatures to put a social housing initiative on the ballot. In early 2025, voters passed the measure, which implements a payroll tax on high incomes to fund the program.
House Our Neighbors
A study found that viewing news of a cyberattack lowered voter trust in election integrity – even when the voter’s candidate won and even if the attack wasn’t on voting systems.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks with reporters about the reconciliation process to advance President Donald Trump’s spending and tax bill on June 3, 2025.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
By using reconciliation, which was originally intended to rein in deficits, Republicans can pass the bill with a simple majority vote. But analysts expect it to lead to larger deficits.