Why Civic Tech Startups Are Hard — And Worth It
MeWe Blog | July 8, 2014 | By Manik Suri At MeWe, we’re building lightweight, easy-to-use tools to help citizens and cities work together more effectively. We are a team of entrepreneurs and engineers passionate about improving how communities works — in order to make individuals’ lives better. Food, housing, and building inspections are critical to public […]
Drawing Inspiration from the GovLab
MeWe Blog | July 1, 2014 | By Manik Suri In early 2013, I joined former US Chief Technology Officer Beth Noveck to co-found a civic innovation platform called The Governance Lab (GovLab), aimed at using technology to transform governing institutions and improve individuals’ lives. Our motley crew of founders included a serial tech entrepreneur, […]
Of Challenges Tempered With Optimism
India Abroad | August 23, 2013 | By Manik Suri On the occasion of India’s 66th anniversary, the world’s largest democracy has made significant strides in its economic, social, and political development. Notwithstanding serious governance challenges in the near term, there are fundamental reasons to remain optimistic about India’s long term prospects. Read the full […]
From Crowdsourcing Potholes to Community Policing
Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University | Interoperability Case Studies | August 15, 2013 | By Manik Suri Open311 is a state-of-the-art technology platform that provides a uniform base to expand existing “311” services, which provide information tracking and monitoring in cities around the world. Over the past decade, these 311 services […]
Reorienting the Principal-Agent Frame: Adopting the “Hartian” Assumption in Understanding and Shaping Legal Constraints on the Executive
Harvard Law and Policy Review | Volume 7, No. 2: Summer 2013 | By Manik Suri Debate over whether law can, and indeed should, constrain presidential power is as old as the Republic. This article claims that liberal legalists, who adopt a consequentialist “Holmesian” view of the law, ignore the possibility that law – as an […]
Recent Developments in Courtroom Lawfare
Harvard National Security Journal | March 25, 2013 | By Gerard Kennedy, Innokenty Pyetranker, and Manik Suri American courtrooms are now one of the hottest battlefields in the ongoing Global War on Terrorism. In recent months, U.S. federal courts have issued several opinions that offer insights into one particularly significant area of terrorism-related jurisprudence: civil […]
Conceptualizing China Within the Kantian Peace
Harvard International Law Journal | Volume 54, Issue 1: Winter 2013 | By Manik Suri Immanuel Kant’s 1795 essay, “Toward Perpetual Peace,” established a concept of cosmopolitan law as the nemesis of war, instilling in generations of liberal thinkers and practitioners a vision of a world without conflict. Kant’s paradigm posited that “republican constitutions, a […]
Why the Indian American Vote Mattered
India America Today | November 21, 2012 | By Manik Suri While Indian Americans were solidly within the Obama camp, the challenge in this election lay in making sure their voice was heard – only 63 percent had voted in 2008. The three million-strong community’s widespread distribution – particularly in contested states – meant that they […]
Time to Get Out the Indian American Vote
India America Today | October 27, 2012 | By Manik Suri Indian Americans are amongst President Obama’s most committed backers, but less than two-thirds of the 3-million strong community’s eligible voters showed up at the ballot box in 2008. This time around, no one can afford to stay on the sidelines. Each of us must […]
How Obama’s India Policy Has Made America Stronger
The Diplomat | October 11, 2012 | By Manik Suri President Obama’s engagement with India rests on the twin pillars of common values and converging interests. Our liberal democracies face common challenges across Asia – from combating fundamentalist violence in the west to preventing authoritarian power plays in the east. Obama’s foresighted India policy has […]