At the beginning of this academic year, Dean Vali Nasr announced changes to SAIS’ senior leadership team.

Peter Lewis, who led the Office of Academic and Faculty Affairs as vice dean since the office was restructured in 2015, overseeing significant changes to the school’s academic life and faculty, has stepped down from the administrative position and returned to his role as director of Africa and Middle East programs.

“As we continue our focus on faculty growth and curriculum development, we have witnessed the responsibilities of the office of vice dean for academic and faculty affairs expand considerably,” Nasr notes. “In order to accommodate these demands and to better align the management of academic and faculty affairs with standard practices across the university, the responsibilities of the Office of Academic and Faculty Affairs will be divided among an executive vice dean and vice dean.”

Eliot Cohen serves as executive vice dean. In this position, he is responsible for the academic curriculum and will have additional authority to oversee and manage academic budget and operations, program development, and restructuring efforts. He will also help shape and advance SAIS’ academic priorities. Kent Calder now serves as vice dean for faculty affairs and international research cooperation, overseeing the critical ongoing development of faculty, the tenure-track process, mentorship of junior faculty, and visiting scholar appointments.

As SAIS celebrates its 75th anniversary, the school is undertaking a transformational shift in its curriculum and structure to meet the needs of students and reinforce the school’s role in thought leadership, Nasr says, adding, “Together, Professors Calder and Cohen will ensure the school strengthens its intellectual community in conjunction with the important developments currently underway.”

SAIS has welcomed four faculty to important leadership roles:

Four SAIS faculty members were honored with awards at the 2018 annual conference of the American Political Science Association, which was held in Boston late last summer:

Strong turnout overshadowed signs of strife and possible election irregularities as voters in Pakistan elected former cricket star Imran Khan the next prime minister last summer. Experts debated the implications of Khan’s victory for Pakistan’s political future and foreign policy in the region.

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Global Policy Madiha Afzal wrote for Brookings (July 27, 2018) that the outcome was driven by dissatisfaction with mainstream politicians, as the people chose “a populist who says that he will deliver social services—education and health—for all.” Others questioned the legitimacy of the outcome, citing widespread voter intimidation. Associate Professor of the Practice of South Asia Studies Joshua White said in The Wall Street Journal (July 12, 2018) that he sees the weaponization of the judiciary and the manipulation of the media as evidence that the military cleared the way for Khan’s ascendance.

Drawing comparisons to U.S. President Donald Trump, observers asked if Khan’s outsider status will make him an effective agent of change. Academic Director of Global Policy Daniel Markey said on BBC (July 26, 2018), “He doesn’t really have any governing experience, and his political party has been cobbled together from a lot of people who have been, frankly, corrupt in the past.”

As for Pakistan’s ties with the U.S., the relationship hinges on Pakistan’s support for the war in Afghanistan. Foreign Policy Institute Fellow Shamila Chaudhary told The New York Times (July 31, 2018), “Khan and the Pakistani military will want Pakistan to have a very strong role in shaping Afghanistan’s future. I don’t think the U.S. is angling for Pakistan to have a strong role.”

As an updated NAFTA pact moved forward in early fall, SAIS Center for Canadian Studies Director Christopher Sands wrote in OpenCanada (Oct. 3, 2018) about the serious damage the negotiating process has caused. Now that the Trump administration has demanded Canada accept less and do more, “anti-Americanism will have a wider appeal” among Canadians, he predicted.

In September, Senior Research Professor of International Economics Anne O. Krueger wrote in Asia Times (Sept. 19, 2018) about her concerns that the global financial system is in jeopardy. Pointing out that Washington is blocking all nominees to replace expiring terms of World Trade Organization arbitration judges, she noted, “Once there is no quorum, no appeals cases can be heard, and some countries might start to violate WTO rules with impunity.”

Brazil’s democracy “faces a stern test,” with newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro at the helm, wrote SAIS Associate Professor of International Economics Filipe Campante in an opinion piece that appeared in the Oct. 29, 2018, issue of Bloomberg. “The most important question is: Can Brazilian institutions withstand the threat posed by the man’s well-documented authoritarian and illiberal streaks?” observed Campante. While some Brazilians hold out hope for Bolsonaro to moderate, Campante is less optimistic.

“His ascent to power was only made possible by extreme polarization and disenchantment with the political establishment. His incentive will be to fan the flames that ignited his candidacy in the first place—not unlike his idol President Donald Trump, whose ‘pivot to the center’ keeps not coming. Brazilian democracy may not collapse. But the odds are strong that it will experience a 21st-century-style democratic backsliding, with all the accompanying erosion of norms and guarantees that sad progression entails.”

Monica de Bolle, the Riordan Roett Chair in Latin American Studies and director of the Emerging Markets Specialization at SAIS, also weighed in on Bolsonaro’s election. Writing in The New York Times opinion section (Oct. 11, 2018), she noted that although austerity could hurt Brazil’s growth in the short term, “the only way to reduce the widening gap between revenues and expenditures is by paying the price of a weaker economy now to guarantee the return of stability and growth later.”

Building upon the success of the Kissinger seminar offered to graduate students at SAIS, the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, with the support of the JHU Provost’s office, has crafted a special course to be offered to select Johns Hopkins University undergraduates beginning this spring semester.

Like the graduate seminar in Washington, the class will be rooted in historically informed strategy, statecraft, and geopolitics. Interdisciplinary in design, the seminar will draw upon a number of fields, including political science, law, ethics, economics, and history, to provide students with a sharp conceptual and empirical lens to understand and prepare for a rapidly changing world.

The course will examine foundational texts, from Thucydides’History of the Peloponnesian War to Machiavelli’s The Prince. It will explore pivotal moments and individuals in the history of world politics, in addition to the making of the United States-led world order. Throughout the semester, the course will focus on connecting scholarship and decision-making on both history and theory to better address the most vexing issues policymakers face today.

Classes will meet on both the Homewood and SAIS campuses, and feature a mix of curricular and co-curricular activities, with an eye toward grappling with the most important grand strategy questions of the day. Students will have the opportunity to engage with leading policymakers in a small group setting, as well as participate in group and interactive activities.

The Kissinger center hopes this is the beginning of deeper and more extensive interactions with the undergraduate population at Homewood.

— Francis J. Gavin, the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs