A Sampling of Key Initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson School Implemented under Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter's Leadership

Upon becoming dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2002, Anne-Marie Slaughter immediately set out to rebuild the School's international relations faculty, and to articulate a clear set of goals for the graduate program. Dean Slaughter has hired the top international relations scholars in the field, attracted world-class faculty from other key policy disciplines, and expanded the curriculum to better reflect the rapidly evolving world of public and foreign affairs. She has enhanced the School's prominence while maintaining its proud tradition of enrolling men and women dedicated to public service with the aim of providing them with the knowledge and skills that qualify them for careers in government service, particularly in the areas of international relations and affairs.

Programmatic initiatives by Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter:

A Reinvigorated International Relations Faculty
Dean Slaughter's top priority has been rebuilding the international relations component of the Woodrow Wilson School's curriculum. Most of the supporting faculty members had retired or moved on to higher academic office prior to Slaughter's arrival. She has appointed several new faculty members specializing in international affairs, including Thomas Christensen, specializing in Chinese and East Asian foreign and security policy; John Ikenberry, specializing in international relations theory and American foreign policy; Helen Milner, specializing in trade policy and globalization issues; and Robert Keohane, the preeminent international relations scholar of his generation.

Public Policy Practitioners
To combine theoretical training with real-world policy experience, Dean Slaughter has offered multi-year lecturer appointments to several leading public policy practitioners. Practitioners teaching at the School include Mickey Edwards, former U.S. Congressman; Anthony Shorris, former New York City commissioner of finance and Port Authority deputy director, and a graduate alumnus of the School; Ambassador Robert Hutchings, former chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council and former director for European Affairs at the National Security Council; and Frederick Hitz, former CIA inspector general and a Princeton alumnus.

Diplomat-in-Residence Program
In 2004 Dean Slaughter created a program to bring an ambassador-level career U.S. diplomat to the School each year to teach courses on international security and diplomacy, and to provide career counseling to students interested in working for the State Department. Edmund Hull, a career foreign service officer, former U.S. ambassador to Yemen and a Woodrow Wilson School undergraduate alumnus, remains in the position as the first appointee.

Placement of Graduates in Federal Government Positions
Dean Slaughter has spearheaded efforts to initiate programs designed to place more School graduates in federal government service.

• Presidential Management Fellows: The federal Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program is a prime gateway for students graduating with master's in public affairs (MPA) degrees to acquire government jobs. In the past year, Dean Slaughter helped convince the program to remove its applications cap, which previously allowed only 10 percent of a graduating class to apply for fellowships. Every Woodrow Wilson School MPA graduate can now apply for a federal government position through the program. This year the School nominated 30 second-year MPA students for the program and 23 were selected to continue the process.

• Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative: The newly-created "Scholars in the Nation's Service" initiative is a highly selective six-year program designed to encourage Princeton students to embark on careers in the U.S. federal government. The initiative will include special programming in students' junior and senior years of college, approximately two years of federal government service, and a master's degree in public affairs (MPA) from the School.

Policy Outreach Initiatives
Dean Slaughter has inaugurated numerous programs designed to give students and faculty the opportunity to work directly with Washington policymakers, and to translate the School's research activities into actual policy initiatives.

• PrincetonProject on National Security Strategy: The School received a grant from the Ford Foundation that funds a multi-year research program aimed at developing a new, long-term U.S. national security strategy. Launched in 2004, the program will provide the intellectual underpinnings to a new, comprehensive security strategy by convening top U.S. academic and policy experts to undertake this complex endeavor.

• Congressional Briefings: Through Princeton's Washington-based Office of Government Affairs, the Woodrow Wilson School hosts briefings on Capitol Hill for legislators and their staffs. The briefings are based on policy-oriented research from the School's faculty, and include the dissemination of policy papers and other relevant material.

• Brookings Institution Partnership: In 2004 the School entered into a teaching, research and outreach partnership with the Brookings Institution, a leading Washington-based think tank. The School and Brookings co-publish the Future of Children, the leading journal on child policy issues. Under the partnership, the School is further able to use the Brookings distribution network for reports and articles produced by student workshops and faculty members.

• WWS Washington, D.C., Seminar Series: In 2003 Dean Slaughter launched the School's ongoing and highly successful Washington Seminar Series, which provides a forum in the nation's capital for School faculty, alumni, and outside policy experts to analyze, debate and offer solutions to pressing domestic and international policy problems. Audiences for the series include diplomats, U.S. government officials, legislators and their staffs, media, academics and others.

The Daniel S. Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies
In November 2005, the Woodrow Wilson School announced that Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, had been appointed as the first S. Daniel Abraham Visiting Professor in Middle East Policy Studies, expanding the School's expertise in this important area. In addition to teaching, Ambassador Kurtzer will work with the School's Office of Graduate Career Services to provide career counseling, and to bring together Princeton officials from the Middle East and the United States to develop strategies for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.