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Kissinger Center Scholars Join Biden-Harris Administration

From its inception, the Kissinger Center has benefited from a network of scholars and practitioners who have shared their time, experience, and expertise. We are proud to highlight the contributions of a select few: friends and affiliates who have been nominated by President Biden to serve in his administration. During their time with the Center, they have shared their insights with students, strengthened our programs, and helped to bridge the divide between the world of practice and the world of ideas. By doing so, they have helped us fulfill our mission to train tomorrow’s leaders, bring the academic and policy words closer together, and generate cutting edge ideas and scholarship on questions surrounding foreign policy and international security.
 
The most prominent example is our America and the Future of World Order Project, which convenes a small, bipartisan, off-the-record Study Group to discuss contemporary and future challenges and solutions to issues of world order. Inspired by the world-renowned Harvard international seminar created by Dr. Kissinger in the 1950s and 1960s, the gathering brings together distinguished scholars and leaders from government, the private sector, think tanks, and universities. The Kissinger Center is grateful to the contributions to the group’s discussion of world order and American grand strategy by Study Group members, Jake Sullivan, who now serves as President Biden’s National Security Advisor, and William J. Burns, President Biden’s nominee to be the Director of Central Intelligence Agency.


 
Both Mr. Sullivan and Ambassador Burns also engaged with the students from the Center’s Kissinger Seminar, courses taught at the undergraduate and graduate level. Our students have also had the opportunity to learn from friends and affiliates of the Center including Kathleen Hicks, former Kissinger Center Donald Marron Scholar and current Deputy Secretary of Defense (who also served on the leadership team of the Kissinger Center’s IPSCON program); Derek Chollet, former Kissinger Center Senior Fellow and current Counselor of the State Department; Kelly Magsamen, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense; and Amanda Sloat, Senior Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council. These experts met with Kissinger Seminar students in small groups in Baltimore and Washington, DC, providing their views on pressing international challenges and sharing advice with those interested in pursuing careers in foreign policy and international security.

 


Beyond the classroom, the Center has engaged leading experts in our grant-funded projects and programming. The International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network (IPSCON), funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, aims to create a cohort of scholar-practitioners, providing them with the mentoring and instruction needed to perform in high-level in senior policy roles and address their research to the real-world problems policymakers confront. Now in its seventh year, the network has mentored over 70 emerging scholars from across the country. Among the program’s first junior scholars were Rebecca Lissner, who now serves as Director for Strategic Plans at the National Security Council, and Mira Rapp-Hooper, who serves as Senior Advisor on the Policy and Planning Staff at the Department of State. Distinguished speakers in the program have included Avril Haines, the Director of National Intelligence;  Wendy Sherman, President Biden’s nominee for Deputy Secretary of State; and Bonnie Jenkins, President Biden’s nominee for Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs. Alexander Bick, the former Associate Director and Fellow at the Center and current Director for Strategic Plans at the National Security Council, has played an integral role in IPSCON since 2017.

The Center’s Nuclear Studies Research Initiative (NSRI) is a major interdisciplinary program established to support and expand a renaissance in nuclear studies by creating a platform for intellectual exchange, cross-fertilization, and mentorship. NSRI has been generously supported by both the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the MacArthur Foundation and its work has benefited greatly from a host of academics including the Kissinger Center’s friend and colleague, Colin Kahl, President Biden’s nominee for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.


 
The Center is also proud to lead the Future Strategy Forum, an initiative that connects scholars who research national security with leading practitioners, showcases female talent in the field, and builds networks across the policy-academic gap. Our recent conference, “The Future of Statecraft”, featured talks by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, President Biden’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Susan Rice, Director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House.
 
This is just a sample of the kind of policy-engaged scholarship and teaching the Kissinger Center supports. We are incredibly grateful to our colleagues for their time and contributions and wish them success as they lead the nation’s foreign policy and national security institutions.