Rosen is First Kaneb Professor

Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles announced that Stephen P. Rosen has been appointed the first Beton Michael Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs. The Kaneb chair was established by John A. Kaneb '56 in honor of his father.

"We are extremely grateful to John Kaneb for this strong support of international relations in the FAS," says Knowles. "As the first Kaneb Professor, Steve Rosen brings great strength to the Government Department and the Center for International Affairs."

Rosen was recently granted tenure in the Government Department and has been associate director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies since 1990. A 1974 graduate of Harvard College, he holds a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard.

Kaneb decided to endow a professorship after much consultation with Samuel P. Huntington, Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor.

Huntington, the director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and from 1978 to 1989 the director of the Center for International Affairs (CFIA), saw the need for senior scholars in the three principal areas of international relations: economics, politics, and security.

Study of Security Issues Essential Today

"While this chair was desirable 10 years ago when we first conceived of the position and John Kaneb agreed to fund it, today it is absolutely essential," states Huntington. "With the conclusion of the Cold War, some people thought the United States's security problems would end. Conversely, they are now more complicated and more serious."

Rosen concurs and he tries to persuade undergraduates of the need to pay attention to international relations. "While today's Harvard students are unlikely ever to serve in the military, many of them will -- as Harvard alumni always have -- play a large role in making public policy decisions. This requires knowledge of security affairs. Students therefore have an obligation to understand what the effects of their decisions may be."

He continues, "Unless you think it's never the case that the United States will get involved in a military conflict -- and I think that is unlikely -- you need to know about war. I tell students that military and security studies should be part of the repertoire of well-educated citizens aspiring to lead our country."

Kaneb hopes that Rosen's appointment will spark increasing awareness of the importance of attention to military and security affairs not only at Harvard but also throughout the country. He is therefore pleased that the chair's first incumbent is of such high caliber.

Outstanding Teacher and Scholar

"I am very enthusiastic about Steve's appointment," says Kaneb. "He is an outstanding scholar who has made a mark for himself at a young age. He is talented and insightful."

Adds Robert D. Putnam, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs and director of the Center for International Affairs, "Steve Rosen is a distinguished member of the faculty and I am delighted that he will bring the honor of this chair to the Center's research strengths."

Huntington points to Rosen's outstanding record as a teacher and scholar. "Steve Rosen is a tremendously popular undergraduate teacher -- he's very engaging and arouses the interest of the undergraduates. Besides numerous articles, he has written two seminal books on this subject."

Rosen's Societies and Military Power, to be published this summer, addresses the relationship between a society and its military establishment by closely examining India and its armies over the centuries.Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military (1991) countered conventional wisdom with evidence that innovations invariably emerge from a group of reformers within the military, not as a result of outside pressures.

Rosen is currently working on a book on the nonrational aspects of deterrence.

Before returning to Harvard in 1990, Rosen was a professor in the strategy department at the Naval War College, a consultant for the President's Commission on Integrated Long-term Strategy, and director of political-military affairs at the National Security Council in the Reagan White House.

Helping Where Others May Not

"Without John Kaneb, this would not have happened," says Huntington. "With the Kaneb chair, Harvard can now be very strong in issues relating to war and peace."

Kaneb credits his father with nurturing his interest in military and security affairs and for establishing a business whose success has enabled him to fund the chair and other projects at Harvard and elsewhere.

"At the depth of the Great Depression," says Kaneb, "my father, a 1925 graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, did three things that were considered crazy: he got married, he quit a good, secure job, and he started an oil and gasoline business from a defunct garage. I admire his courage and ability."

The business flourished. Kaneb is now chief executive officer of Gulf Oil L.P., H.P. Hood Inc., the Catamount Companies, and other family-controlled businesses and investment companies.

Kaneb avidly seeks opportunities for making a difference. "I try to help in areas where others may not step up to support," he explains. This philosophy has prompted him to make numerous gifts to Harvard, from funding the rebuilding of the men's varsity baseball field and supporting a renovation in Briggs Cage for basketball in the 1970s to later co-chairing a drive to build a new Harvard-Radcliffe Catholic Student Center. He now leads the Medical School's $220 million campaign.

Besides his Harvard activities, which include membership on the Campaign Executive Committee of the Committee on University Resources (COUR) and on the Visiting Committee to the Center for International Affairs, Kaneb is widely involved in Boston organizations. He is a trustee of Partners HealthCare -- the parent of Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's hospitals, chair of the board of trustees at McLean Hospital, member of the finance council and past chairman of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and a part-owner of the Boston Red Sox. Kaneb is also a trustee of the University of Notre Dame.

Kaneb and his wife, Virginia, have 6 sons and 10 grandchildren.