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John Ruggie, John White & Ira Jackson
Current and former M-RCBG Directors gathered to discuss the history and future of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government during a lunch panel convened on the occasion of the Center’s 25th Anniversary.
“This is no longer an American game, as it was once thought to be, but it’s a global game for companies no matter where they are headquartered,” said Richard Cavanaugh, Director of the Center from 1991-1993 in a film highlighting the Center's history. “That is something where the Center has shown real leadership in terms of becoming global in its outlook versus American in its outlook.”
Presented as part of the two-day long “New Directions in Regulatory Policy” conference, the luncheon panel featured a documentary of the creation and history of M-RCBG. The video illustrated the initial mission of the Center, as well as its continuing importance to the study of an increasingly global business-government relationship.
Graham Allison, Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at the Center’s founding, noted in the video, “It was clear from the outset that what Harvard was trying to do by creating the School of Government was to have something that would be complementary to the School of Business. Because business is the major force of economic transformation… what happens within the framework of law established by government and regulations established by government” is crucially important. He continued, “How to manage that interaction was the core question for a business and government center.”
Winthrop Knowlton, the Center’s first Director from 1982-1987, focused on his memories of the Center’s launch. Reading from a journal he kept at the time, he remarked, “The central intellectual question is, how do we want to change the way that business and government behave? Do we really want them to become partners and collaborate ….do we really think this is desirable?”
Knowlton stated many of the issues relevant in 1982, for better or worse, continue in significance today, citing a conference the Center hosted in the early 1980’s concerning America’s crumbling infrastructure, noting that, unfortunately, “bridges still keep seem to be falling down around us.”
Still, while some problems have endured the past 25 years, Knowlton does see significant transformation. “To me the most profound change is what has happened in the relative relationship between business and government. I think business, which was perceived as being on the ropes, has emerged as a global powerhouse.”
Following a viewing of Karl Fisch’s popular internet clip Shift Happens, John White, Center Director from 1993 - 1995, opened a panel discussion highlighting the impact that global change has had on issues of national security. Ira Jackson, Center Director from 2000 - 2002, followed White with a nod to Peter F. Drucker, founder of Claremont University’s Graduate School of Management, quoting, “the best way to predict the future is to create it." Jackson reaffirmed the Center’s importance as a place where business, government and society leaders can convene to “create the future” by combining ideas with academic insight to produce public value.
- Dan Crane
M-RCBG Fellows & Visiting Programs Associate
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