Campus & Community

Stephen Walt is named academic dean at KSG

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Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Politics, has been appointed academic dean at the Kennedy School of Government.

Walt is faculty chair of the International Security Program of the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He previously served on the faculties of Princeton University and the University of Chicago, where he was master of the Social Science Collegiate Division and deputy dean, Division of Social Sciences. He has also been a resident associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution.

“Stephen Walt brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience to the academic dean’s office,” said Joseph S. Nye, dean of the Kennedy School. “I’m confident the School’s record of academic excellence will continue under his watch.”

Walt received the 1988 Edgar S. Furniss National Security Book Award for “The Origins of Alliances” (1987). He is also the author of “Revolution and War” (1996) and several other publications, including “International Relations: One World, Many Theories” (Foreign Policy, spring 1998); “Rigor or Rigor Mortis?: Rational Choice and Security Studies” (International Security, spring 1999); and “Two Cheers for Clinton’s Foreign Policy” (Foreign Affairs, March/April 2000). Walt also serves as co-editor of Cornell Studies in Security Affairs, published by Cornell University Press. He is on leave from the Kennedy School during the current academic year.

Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment Frederick Schauer has served the School as academic dean for the past five years, and he will remain on faculty. He was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow and, after the transition in June, will begin work on his research project focusing on the benefits of generalization in decision-making.

The academic dean at the Kennedy School oversees the academic functions of the School, including faculty, research, and degree and executive teaching.