The fall 2013 issue of Centerpiece focuses on the Center's recent activities, including program events, the Warren and Anita Manshel Lecture in American Foreign Policy, and the Samuel L. and Elizabeth Jodidi Lecture Series. The feature, “Forging a Metropolis: State-led Urban Development in Xi’an, China" by Kyle Jaros, examines the recent boom of big cities in China. And finally, our annual "Dispatches" highlights the summer research of four Undergraduate Associates who traveled to South Africa, Europe, Zambia, and Peru.
In Memoriam: Robert Richardson Bowie
The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs mourns the loss of Robert Richardson Bowie, the Center’s founding director, who passed away on Saturday, November 2, 2013, at the age of 104.…Bowie founded the Center with the intention to address, “…the pressing need for widened knowledge and understanding: for more awareness of the nature and complexity of foreign affairs; for more informed and imaginative thinking.”…
Forging a Metropolis: State-led Urban Development in Xi'an, China
By Kyle Jaros
The boom of big cities across China in recent years reflects not only market forces unleashed by reform and liberalization but also renewed—and, in some cases, intensified—state intervention in the economy. Policymakers in some provinces have effectively turned a long-standing policy of “strictly controlling the size of large cities” on its head, promoting the build-up of their top metropolitan centers as a key part of their economic strategies. State-led efforts to transform Xi’an, the sleepy capital of Shaanxi province, into an “international metropolis” and regional “growth pole” epitomize this larger trend. …
Dispatches: Undergraduate Researchers in the Field
Eighteen Harvard College students received summer 2013 travel grants from the Weatherhead Center to support their thesis research on topics related to international affairs. Since their return in August, the Weatherhead Center has encouraged these Undergraduate Associates to take advantage of the Center’s research environment.…
Message from the Executive Director
In the New York Times Sunday Review on October 25, 2013, we were pleased to see an opinion piece by Chris P. Nielsen and Mun S. Ho entitled “Clearing the Air in China.” Marshaling only the data that a short piece can allow, the article advocated the introduction of a carbon tax in China to curb carbon emissions and control air pollution, thus saving countless lives.…
At the Center
 | Centerpiece: Fall 2013, Volume 28 Number 1 | 746 KB |