Working with Large Federal Agencies to Achieve Large Landscape Conservation Goals
Moderated by Jim Levitt, Director of the Program on Conservation Innovation at the Harvard Forest, Harvard University

About the Web Session
This online session will focus on opportunities to work alongside the U.S. Federal Government to advance large landscape conservation initiatives. The first opportunity we will consider is with the Department of Defense, which has recently issued the REPI Challenge to encourage projects that conserve land at a greater scale and test promising ways to finance land protection that will help the REPI program meet its ambitious goals with limited funding. As Nancy Natoli of the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Installations and Environment) will discuss, the Department may provide up to $5 million in additional FY12 funding for land transactions in the states of Georgia (Forts Benning, Stewart, and Gordon only) and Florida (Eglin Air Force Base and Camp Blanding only). The second case we will examine is focused on a recent conservation success on Maine’s Schoodic Point, where Lyme Timber Company - working in concert with several nonprofits – was able to protect a key, and relatively large, parcel of land adjacent to Acadia National Park’s Schoodic Peninsula District. Peter Stein of Lyme Timber will be on hand to give us insight into the deal that came to pass after many years of complex and patient negotiation.... Read more about Meeting the Challenge

Rema Hanna, Harvard Kennedy School
Moderator: Elizabeth Osborn, Program Director of Harvard Kennedy School Indonesia Program

About the Seminar
Rema Hanna will discuss her recent research Targeting the Poor: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia, co-authored with Vivi Alatas, Abhijit Banerjee, Julia Tobias, and Ben Olken. This research systematically tests the effectiveness of targeting strategy for anti-poverty cash transfer program in Indonesia, namely, proxy-means test, using data on assets to predicts income; community targeting, using villagers own rank; and hybrid method. In particular, it examines the ability of each approach in identifying the poor and providing of satisfaction with transfer recipient list. Not only evaluating if the elite capture reduces community informational advantage, the research also observes if community has widely shared objective function beyond per-capita income. Understanding cost and benefit of targeting strategy is of practical importance for public policy makers, poverty-alleviation specialist, and for anyone interested in anti-poverty measures, especially in developing countries with, typically, substantial informal sector and lack of reliable earning records.... Read more about Targeting the Poor: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia

William Eggers, Global Director for Deloitte Research

About the Seminar
In the wake of the deep austerity facing most governments around the world, leaders are faced with the challenge to “do more with less.” Unfortunately, typical cost reduction exercises inevitably result in a difficult trade-off – between price or performance. Breaking this seemingly unavoidable trade-off will require leaders to look at the public sector in a whole new way. The key to radically reducing costs, while maintaining or even improving services, is disruptive innovation. Creating the conditions for disruption will require policymakers to view government through a different lens. This seminar will provide examples of opportunities to implement disruptive innovation and offers a framework to introduce it in the public sector – proposing an alternative path to significantly reduce costs without sacrificing the quality of services.... Read more about How Disruptive Innovation Can Help Government Achieve More for Less

Byron Good and Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Harvard Medical School
Moderator: Nelden Djakababa, Indonesia Research Fellow

About the Seminar
Please join us for the first session in the Indonesia Seminar Series this semester with a presentation by Professors Byron Good and Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good from the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. The Goods will review the enormous challenges of building mental health services in Indonesia, reflecting on nearly 20 years of research and implementation studies related to mental illness and mental health care. History of mental health policies and new efforts to build services in extremely low resource settings will be discussed, placing these efforts in regional context. Special attention will be given to internationally-supported projects to develop new models of care in post-tsunami, post-conflict Aceh, and projects currently underway in Yogyakarta and Aceh with support of a USAID program that facilitates collaboration between Harvard Medical School and two Indonesian universities.... Read more about Mental Health Policies in Indonesia Today: Enormous Challenges, Emerging Possibilities

Donald Gregg, Former Ambassador to South Korea
Co-sponsored by the Korea Institute, Harvard University

About the Seminar
The death of Kim Jong Il and the ascension of Kim Jong Un to power in Pyongyang give the U.S. the best chance it probably will ever have to start afresh with North Korea. Kim Jong Un, in his late twenties, with a couple of years of education in Switzerland, is going to be around for a long time, barring an internal upheaval in North Korea, which is in no one’s interest. Kim Jong Il took to the grave with him the issues of the sinking of the South Korean ship, the Cheonan, and the shelling of the South Korean island. One distinguished South Korean commentator has said that Kim Jong Un is the only North Korean leader to come to power with a relatively clean record. 2012 is a transitional year for every country involved in the Six-Party Talks. It provides an opportunity to prepare for 2013, when with a new president in Seoul, and, if President Obama is re-elected, progress can be made in establishing a real dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, and re-establishing the Six-Party Talks.... Read more about Time to Plan for a New Chapter in U.S. Relations with North Korea

William Overholt, Ash Center
Co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University

About the Seminar
Asian politics has been driven by the “Asian economic miracles,” which resulted from the use of mobilization systems. These systems, originally copied by Japan from domestic strategies of prewar Germany and the Soviet Union, work only in relatively cohesive societies motivated by a high level of fear. When successful, they either decay into stagnant domination by bloated bureaucracies and reactionary interest groups or evolve into more competitive economies and polities. South Korea and Taiwan made the transition successfully while Japan failed, with the result that South Korean living standards and international prominence will soon exceed Japan’s. China faces a decisive choice between a milder version of Japanese decay and a reignition of reforms that could yield global leadership. These evolutions will determine power relations in Asia and much of the future of global politics.... Read more about The Future of Northeast Asia: Mobilization System Life Cycles

Joseph Nye, Harvard Kennedy School
Co-sponsored by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

About the Seminar
In this Decline of Democracy Seminar, Professor Joseph Nye will draw upon the argument of his recent book, The Future of Power, to discuss what we mean when we talk about decline, what the relevant indicators are, and what difference it makes to our future. 

About the Speaker
Joseph S. Nye Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor, and former Dean of the Kennedy School. He received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, did postgraduate work at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology.... Read more about Is America in Decline?