Executive Education at the Kennedy School is proud to present two international security programs focusing on Russia and the Black Sea region.  The programs are funded by a generous grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, with additional funding from the U.S. Department of Defense for the Black Sea Program.

Black Sea Security Program

Each year, Executive Education at the Kennedy School hosts international and domestic representatives for the Black Sea Security Program.  This program brings together senior policymakers and academic experts in national security affairs in the United States with key leaders from the Black Sea region at Harvard, to gain a deeper understanding of issues affecting the region and to encourage problem-solving in areas of common interest.

The program is directed to those in senior policy-making positions in the Black Sea region who will be in office for the next ten to fifteen years and it seeks to engage those officials with a breadth of responsibility and a wider vision of their governments' concerns. The program aims to enhance the understanding of these national security elites of the multiplicity of common interests and shared problems in the region. For similar reasons, the U.S. Department of Defense assigns U.S general officers to the session who have knowledge of the region's strategic issues. Each program class includes about twenty to twenty-five senior national security officials from the region and eight to ten U.S. general officers who are regional specialists.

The curriculum of the program is targeted specifically at the concerns of senior military officers, civilian officials, and leading academic experts and writers on national security affairs in five core countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. In recognition of the new strategic and economic relationships that are developing in the region, the program also addresses salient strategic and economic security issues of the other regional powers: Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Slovenia, and Turkey.  Senior officials from these nations are included in the program.

For more information, please visit http://harvard-bssp.org

U.S. - Russia Security Program

The U.S.­Russia Security Program began in 1991 as the Russian Generals program, with the goal of providing Russian general officers a neutral environment for the discussion of national security issues.  With the addition of U.S. counterparts in 1997, the program acquired a new meaning, becoming a forum for open communication between U.S. and Russian militaries.  Since its inception, 285 Russian general officers and 140 U.S. general officers have completed the program.

The program aims to:

• Deepen the understanding of both Russian and U.S. participants’ worldviews through open discussion of global and regional security issues, defense organization, and military reform.
• Discuss the national interests of Russia and the U.S.
• Pinpoint specific ways to cooperate on issues of interest to both countries, while working to minimize the division and discord arising from secondary issues
• Encourage casual interaction between U.S. and Russian general officers, thereby promoting development of trust and understanding

For more information, please visit http://harvard-rgp.org