Mary Graham, Co-Director of the Transparency Policy Project at the Kennedy School’s Ash Center, discusses her book Presidents’ Secrets: The Use and Abuse of Hidden Power, which traces the evolution of secrecy in the executive branch, beginning with George Washington’s remarkably open administration, through the communist scares of the 20th century, all the way to the current president, Donald Trump.

Gil Kerlikowske, the recently retired commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and current Institute of Politics fellow, discusses the breakdowns in the rollout of the Trump administration’s executive order limiting travel by citizens of seven Middle Eastern nations into the United States. Kerlikowske details the complexity involved in implementing a major policy across the country’s largest law enforcement agency, and how a lack of planning and communication ended up creating chaos after the executive order was signed.

HKS Professor Matthew Bunn, co-principal investigator for the Belfer Center’s Project on Managing the Atom, explains how the US nuclear arsenal is managed, what the outgoing Obama administration’s $1 trillion commitment to modernization will entail, and what, if any, changes can be expected under President Trump. He also discusses the state of non-proliferation and the greatest nuclear threats the world faces today.

HKS Professor Kathryn Sikkink shows how human rights efforts over the last century have largely succeeded in improving the living conditions for the vast majority of the world, and that even though the work is far from over and setbacks are inevitable, there is reason to have hope for things to continue to improve.

Three faculty members discuss the history of presidential leadership, how Donald Trump’s business experience will translate to the federal government, and how his relationship with a republican congress could play out. Guests include Senior Lecturer David King, chair of the Kennedy School’s Masters of Public Administration programs, Lecturer Barbara Kellerman, Founding Executive Director of the School’s Center for Public Leadership, and Professor Roger Porter, who served for more than a decade in senior economic policy positions in the White House.

Three HKS faculty members discuss the broad economic challenges facing President Donald Trump as he takes office, including the cumulative effects of decades of wage stagnation, rising healthcare costs, and declining economic mobility, as well as the growing challenges posed by automation and the gig economy. Featuring Dean Douglas Elmendorf, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, Professor Brigitte Madrian, a behavioral economist focused on household savings and investment behavior, and Professor David Ellwood, director of the Wiener Center for Social Policy, where he is currently focused on inequality and mobility.

This is the second in a three-part series of roundtable discussions, produced in collaboration with HKS Magazine, on the challenges facing President-elect Trump in foreign policy, economics, and leadership.

As Donald Trump prepares to take office, three HKS faculty members discuss the challenges he’ll face in pursuing his unique brand of politics on the world stage. Featuring former US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, former Department of Homeland Security Official Juliette Kayyem and Foreign Policy Columnist Stephen Walt.

Sushma Raman, executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights and adjunct lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School, digs into the challenges facing human rights organizations on both the international and local levels and how they are rising up to meet the challenge.

HKS Professor Sheila Jasanoff urges us to closely consider the ways technologies have come to govern our lives, and question if unbridled technological innovation is inherently a good thing, or if it’s worth taking a step back before we make the next giant leap.

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy discusses the challenges posed by the growing crisis of opioid addiction in the United States, how to combat the over-prescription of painkillers, and the importance of eliminating the stigma that often surrounds addiction. He also discusses how his advocacy on public health issues will continue during the Trump administration.

Murthy was on campus thanks to the Center for Public Leadership, the Wiener Center, and the HKS Healthcare Policy Program to deliver the Seymour E. and Ruth B. Harris Lecture at the JFK Jr. Forum.