Presentations & Speeches

Barbara Stephenson, President of the American Foreign Service Association, and Nicholas Burns, one of the country’s best-known commentators on international affairs, spoke for WorldBoston on “The State of the State Department” and its implications for the future of the U.S. national interest.

In this keynote speech delivered January 25, 2018 at a conference on Atrocity Crimes at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, Nicholas Burns called on President Trump, who has not championed vocally human rights and democracy so far in his Presidency, to appoint an American Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes and to take the baton of Leadership from his Republican and Democratic predecessors on this vital issue.

Ambassador Nicholas Burns in Paris on May 23, 2017 receiving and honorary degree and delivering the Commencement address to the American University of Paris class of 2017. He reminds graduates to "believe in the beauty, the power and the truth of our democratic way of life."

On May 18, Professor Burns delivered the 2017 Commencement Address to the Salem State University School of Graduate Studies in Salem, Massachusetts. His speech had themes of hope and service. He left them with two messages and calls to action: that we must never forget who we [the United States] really are as a people—a nation of immigrants; and that the graduates before him raise us up and build a better and stronger and more hopeful America.

Nicholas Burns spoke at the World Affairs Council of Maine's Annual Meeting about Foreign Policy Challenges facing the United States.

This discussion was recorded on June 18, 2014 at the The Portland Club.

A daily service of Morning Prayers has been kept at Harvard since its founding in 1636. Held Monday through Saturday during term in Appleton Chapel, the service consists of music, prayer, and a brief address given by a member or friend of the University. This service, open to all, is designed to enable students and faculty to attend nine o'clock classes.

Professor Burns led Morning Prayers on January 28, 2014 where he asked attendees to join him in prayer for peace and justice around the world and here at home in America. He began with a reading from Amos 5, verses 22-24: “Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.  Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. But, let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”