U.S. Foreign Policy after the Elections
Panel discussants include Barbara Bodine, Diplomat-in-Residence at the Woodrow Wilson School and former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen; Aaron Friedberg, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at WWS and former deputy assistant for National Security Affairs in the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney; Joseph Nye Jr. Professor of International Relations and former Dean of the Kennedy School at Harvard University; and Walter Slocombe, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Acting WWS Dean Nolan McCarty moderates.
(May 31, 2008 at Princeton University)
Ambassador Bodine spent her 30-year diplomatic career primarily in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula, including tours as Deputy Principal Officer in Baghdad and Deputy Chief of Mission in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion and occupation in 1990. She served as US Ambassador to Yemen from 1997 to 2001, a period that saw increased security and counterterrorism cooperation between that country and the U.S. Seconded to the Department of Defense in 2003, she served as the first coalition coordinator for post-conflict reconstruction for Baghdad and the central provinces of Iraq. Bodine previously served as the Robert Wilhelm Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology's Center for International Studies Persian Gulf Initiative, and previously was the director of Harvard's Governance Initiative in the Middle East. Her work focuses on post-conflict political reconstruction, governance and reform, the relationship between security demands and legitimacy requirements, and the regional and global implications.
Aaron Friedberg is the deputy assistant for National Security Affairs in the Office of the Vice President. He is a member of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion. His areas of expertise include international relations, international security, East Asia and foreign defense and foreign policy. He is the author of two books, The Weary Titan: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895–1905 (which received the Edgar Furniss National Security Book Award), and In the Shadow of the Garrison State: America's Anti-Statism and Its Cold War Grand Strategy.
Joseph Nye Jr., is a University Distinguished Service Professor and the Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations and former Dean of the Kennedy School. He has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. In 2004, he published Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics; Understanding International Conflict (5th edition); and The Power Game: A Washington Novel.
Walter Slocombe is the former director of national security and defense in the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. organization charged with overseeing Iraq's reconstruction and transition to democratic rule. He also served in the Pentagon as under-secretary of defense for policy, 1994 to 2001. Slocombe was awarded the Department of Defense’s Distinguished Public Service Medal (1981, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2004) and its Joseph Kruzel Award for Distinguished Service in the Pursuit of Peace (2000), and has been named an Honorary Submariner by the Fleet Submarine Force. His international service has been recognized by awards from the Polish, German, and Korean governments.
Nolan McCarty’s research interests include U.S. politics, democratic political institutions, and political game theory. He is the recipient of the Robert Eckles Swain National Fellowship from the Hoover Institution and the John M. Olin Fellowship in Political Economy. He has recently completed two books: Political Game Theory (2006, Cambridge University Press with Adam Meirowitz) and Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches (2006, MIT Press with Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal).
