Vol. 32, Issue 2 - Spring 2009
WWS Launches New Center for International Security Studies
In April, the Woodrow Wilson School hosted the launch conference of the new Center for International Security Studies (CISS), a research center that will serve as a locus for The School’s teaching, research, and outreach in the realm of global security issues.
The center will be co-directed by Aaron Friedberg, a Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School and a former Deputy National Security Adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, and G. John Ikenberry, a Professor of Politics and International Affairs at the School and the academic co-chair of the Princeton Project on National Security, a multi-year, bipartisan initiative to develop a new national security strategy for the United States.
“This new center will be an excellent resource for students, faculty, and researchers on campus and elsewhere to engage with the most serious security challenges of our day,” said Mark Watson, Interim Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School. “I congratulate Aaron and John in their efforts to make the concept of CISS a reality for the benefit of Princeton and the wider world.”
The Center for International Security Studies aims to support the research and teaching missions of the Woodrow Wilson School by sponsoring a selective undergraduate course on grand strategy during the 2009-10 academic year, co-taught by Friedberg and Ikenberry.
John Lewis Gaddis opened the CISS launch conference with a keynote address on “American Grand Strategy and the Obama Administration. Photo by Sameer Khan.
In addition, CISS will support research, conferences, and special workshops on international security issues, as well as provide logistical and academic support for existing projects at the School. The center will host up to two postdoctoral researchers each academic year investigating global security problems.
“The Center for International Security Studies will help to provide our students with increased knowledge of and specialization in grand strategy and national security issues, particularly as the U.S. deals with such challenges as the rise of Asia and the ongoing economic crisis,” said Ikenberry. “The study of grand strategy – how states mobilize and pursue policies in the face of international threats and opportunities – is especially important in today’s interconnected and globalizing world.”
“The new center will support the community of scholars atThe School and at Princeton who are examining the security challenges we face today, as well as tomorrow,” commented Friedberg. “We hope CISS will serve as a vehicle for outreach and cooperation with other institutions studying these issues, from the military service academies in the U.S. to our peer institutions abroad. And we hope to attract the world’s leading scholars to the center to increase our collective knowledge for the benefit of our students.”
The launch conference, titled “International Security in a New Era of Crisis,” kicked off on Thursday, April 30 with a keynote speech by renowned grand strategist and Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett Professor of History at Yale University. The conference also included a high-level panel addressing “American Grand Strategy and the Obama Administration,” featuring the participation of Peter Beinart of the Council on Foreign Relations; Jakub Grygiel, Johns Hopkins University; and Barry Posen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Woodrow Wilson School Professor of Politics and International Affairs Thomas Christensen, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, will serve as the panel’s respondent. Professor Ikenberry chaired the panel. A second panel of experts examined the topic “The Global Financial Crisis and American National Security”, featuring the participation of Daniel Drezner, Tufts University; Jonathan Kirshner of Cornell University; and James Shinn Ph.D. ’73, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs and a visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School. The School’s Harold James, a Professor of History and International Affairs, served as the panel’s respondent. Professor Friedberg chaired the panel.