Emily Gantt Kahn (from left) and Leo Kahn endowed the Kirkpatrick Professorship in honor of Jeane Kirkpatrick (center) and the late Evron M. Kirkpatrick. They are joined by Stephen Walt, who will hold the chair, and Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Photo by Martha Stewart.

Stephen M. Walt, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, has been named the first Kirkpatrick Professor of International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr. announced.

Endowed by Leo and Emily Kahn, the Kirkpatrick Professorship was established to honor the lives, careers, and legacies of Jeane J. and Evron M. Kirkpatrick.

"Steve Walt is one of the finest international security studies scholars working today," said Nye. "His work is consistently pacesetting, and his first book, The Origins of Alliances, has been one of the standard monographs in the field virtually since its publication over a decade ago."

At the University of Chicago, Walt specialized in international relations theory, revolutions, and national security policy. His courses at the Kennedy School will focus on international security and U.S. foreign policy.

This is something of a homecoming for Walt, who was a research fellow at the Kennedy School's Center for Science and International Affairs from 1981 to 1984.

"It is tremendously exciting to be returning to an institution that marries theory and practice in order to solve important real-world problems," said Walt.

Walt has been a resident associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and has received fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and others.

Walt is the author of The Origins of Alliances, which received the 1988 Edgar S. Furniss National Security Book Award, and numerous articles on international politics. His most recent book is Revolution and War, published in 1996 by Cornell.

Walt received his B.A. in international relations from Stanford University in 1977, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1983.