"Fellows and Alums"

Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Summer 2007

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Harvard Information Infrastructure Project; International Security; Intrastate Conflict Program; Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Here are a few of the talented women and men who are current and former fellows and associates of the Belfer Center whose work is making significant contributions in public and private sectors around the world.

Current Fellows: Profiles in Action

Emily Balic
Fellow - Program on Intrastate Conflict Resolution/International Security Program

As an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary, Emily Balic lived in Prague and traveled extensively through central and southeastern Europe researching and writing. Her interest in the area guided her toward a doctoral degree in East European History from Stanford University, where she will graduate this summer.

Prior to coming to the Belfer Center, Balic, who speaks fluent Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina for two years conducting research for her recently completed dissertation on Sarajevo during WWII. In the process, she learned about the Belfer Center's work regarding intrastate conflict and the Balkans. "As an historian working on civil conflict and identity," she says, "I wanted to gain an interdisciplinary perspective and learn how to make my research applicable to the contemporary world."

Balic says that her fellowship at the Belfer Center has given her the opportunity to discuss and debate with colleagues issues concerning the current state of the Balkans and to explore ways her research might contribute to developing sustainable policies in that region.

Lindsey Borg
Fellow - International Security Program/ Harvard's Program on Information Resources Policy

When Lt. Col. Lindsey Borg leaves the Belfer Center in June, he will take command of public affairs for the Air Force's Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. The command has global responsibility for Air Force air cargo and refueling missions. An Air Mobility Command aircraft takes off or lands every 90 seconds every day.

In his 17-year career, Borg has dealt with a number of crisis communication situations, including an incident in which a U.S. Marine Corps' aircraft accidentally cut a cable car's lines in the mountains of Italy. On September 11, 2001, he left the Pentagon 30 minutes before it was attacked, and from his temporary office established the Air Force press operations, responding immediately to public information needs. He has won numerous awards for excellence in communications.

A native of Iowa, Borg grew up in a communications-career family, often accompanying his father in his work as a journalist and public affairs professional. Borg became interested in the Air Force following a White House internship, and received an officer commission through ROTC.

"I will treasure the experience and the rich education I've enjoyed through the center's people and activities," says Borg, whose research this year is focused on the Department of Defense's efforts to build a strategic communication process. "I hope to give a return on that investment through my future work."

Sally Fegan-Wyles
Goodman UN Fellow - Belfer Center and Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

As director of the United Nations Development Group Office, Sally Fegan-Wyles works with the World Bank to bring together the different international partners in countries coming out of conflict. The goal, she says, is to "develop a clear plan of what needs to be done to stabilize the peace, and to get economic, political, and social recovery on track as quickly as possible, to prevent the country from sliding back into conflict."

At the UN, Fegan-Wyles pioneered programs that included designing the first UN response to HIV/AIDS in Uganda, leading the international community response to the Zimbabwe drought of 1991, and providing social policy advice to the Museveni Government in Uganda during and after the civil war.

A key to sustainable peace, Fegan-Wyles believes, is a "holistic" approach to the analytical and planning processes that includes the political, military, humanitarian, and development actors. While at the Belfer and Carr centers this semester, Fegan-Wyles is meeting and exchanging ideas with a number of faculty and fellows who are interested in and working on issues related to conflict resolution and peace stabilization.

Fegan-Wyles believes her experience at the Belfer Center will enable her to approach issues of coherence and integration at the UN with new insights that will help increase the effectiveness of international and multilateral support to countries that need it.

Surakiart Sathirathai
Senior Fellow - International Security Program

Surakiart Sathirathai, former foreign affairs minister, finance minister, and deputy prime minister in Thailand, comes to the Belfer Center with a wealth of experience not only in government, but also in academia, law, and business. He was an official candidate for the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2005-06 and endorsed by ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

Dr. Surakiart, who is also a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School and the European Law Research Center this semester, earned masters degrees from Tufts and Harvard and was the first Thai to receive a doctorate from Harvard Law School. His wife, Suthawan, also received a master's degree from Tufts, and their son, Santitarn, is currently completing a MPA-ID at the Kennedy School.

Dr. Surakiart was on the faculty of Thailand's Chulalongkorn University and served as dean of the university's law faculty. In business, he co-founded an international law firm, Siam Premier.

While at the Belfer Center, Dr. Surakiart is focusing on establishing international policy dialogue groups on alternative development strategies. This three-year project will include meetings with local policymakers in selected developing countries in various regions. "I want to be at a center which allows the intellectual community to link with policymakers and actions on the ground," Dr. Surakiart says. "I have learned that the Belfer Center is such a place."

Belfer Center Alumni: Where Are They Now?

Stephen Biddle
Former Fellow (1985-87)

Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, researches, writes and consults on security, nuclear, and war-related issues to various departments of government, Congress, and international groups such as NATO.

Before his appointment to CFR, Biddle was a professor of national security studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), and prior to that, a member of the political science faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has also held research positions at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA).

"I try to combine policy relevance with methodological rigor, and my predoctoral fellowship at Belfer was an indispensable foundation for this," Biddle says. "The chance to watch Joe Nye, Ash Carter, and Graham Allison dissect presentations and see how fellows and guests responded was an education in itself in social science research design. This experience was at the heart of everything I've done since."

In a "Conversations with History" interview last year at UC Berkeley, Biddle also praised two of the Center founders, Albert Carnesale, former UCLA chancellor and current Belfer Center Board member now at the Center, and Michael Nacht, now dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at Berkeley, who, he said, "became role models for a life of the mind in this field, what it should look like, and how apparently fun it could be."

A prolific writer, Biddle's 2004 book, Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle, won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Award Silver Medal. In this book, Biddle argues that how weapons and systems are employed and deployed is integral to military strategy.

Kate O'Neill
Former Fellow (1997-98)

Kate O'Neill is associate professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California at Berkeley, where she has taught global environmental politics and governance since January 1999. Her current research focuses on a range of international issues, such as management of hazardous waste, the impact of the World Trade Organization on multilateral environmental agreements, and measures to halt the spread of Mad Cow Disease.

While at the Belfer Center, O'Neill worked with Science, Technology, and Public Policy Director John Holdren and Managing the Atom's Matthew Bunn. She worked primarily in the area of international schemes for the management and transportation of nuclear waste.

"My work at the Belfer Center taught me two things that have stood me in particularly good stead during my nearly nine years at Berkeley. I began learning how to work in interdisciplinary contexts, and to communicate across disciplinary lines. Also, the work being done by others at the Center helped me realize the importance of ‘problem-solving' or policy-oriented work, in addition to the more theoretical orientation of much academic work. In my department, these sorts of skills are very useful to have," says O'Neill. She is currently working on a manuscript regarding the environment and international relations.

The most important and lasting influence from her time at the Belfer Center, O'Neill says, has been the network of friends and colleagues drawn from her cohort of post-docs and other fellows. "It's the chance to create that sort of peer-group network that makes post-doc fellowship opportunities so important."

Fellows in the Field and on the Move

Welcome to Rami Khouri, new senior fellow with the Belfer Center's Dubai Initiative. Khouri is a journalist and director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy in Beirut.

Hassan Abbas (MTA) recently presented on religion, state, and terror to Turkish military and NATO.

Greg Aftandilian (Dubai Initiative/ISP) addressed the State Department's Foreign Service Institute regarding Egypt history and politics.

Rasmus Bertelsen (STPP) received Harvard's Kuwait Program grant to continue his Middle East research.

Nikolaos Biziouras (ICP/ISP) has been named assistant professor of political science at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Seyom Brown (ISP) is the John Good-win Tower Distinguished Chair of International Politics and National Security at Southern Methodist University.

Patrick Cohrs (ISP) has been appointed assistant professor of history at Yale University.

Vanda Felbab-Brown (ICP/ISP) will be assistant professor in the Security Studies Program at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Joshua Gleis (ISP) will present at the American Political Science Association 2007 annual meeting on how to more effectively withdraw from insurgencies.

Michael Glosny (ISP), Alex Weisiger (ICP/ISP), and Todd Sechser (ISP 2004-06) have been named Olin fellows for next year.

Kelly Greenhill (ISP/ICP) has been named assistant professor of political science at Tufts and will continue as a Belfer Center fellow.

Michael Horowitz (ISP) has been appointed assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeremy Jones (Dubai Initiative/ISP) presented to the Naval Academy and U.S. War College regarding his new book on negotiating change in the Middle East.

Mustafa Kibaroglu (ISP 2004-05) was named academic adviser to NATO's Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism in Turkey.

Assaf Moghadam (ISP 2004-06) completed his dissertation at Tuft's Fletcher School on the globalization of martyrdom.

Jacqueline Newmyer (ISP) led a panel on "China and Human Rights" at a Wilton Park conference in the UK.

Philip Potter (ISP) will discuss the relationship between international integration and conflict at a political science conference at Nuffield College.

Scott Radnitz (ISP/ICP) will be a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and assistant professor at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington.

Tammy Ann Smith (ISP/KSG Women and Public Policy Program) has been named assistant professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Stephen Watts (ICP/ISP) has been appointed assistant professor of political science at UMass Amherst.

For more information about this publication please contact the Belfer Center Communications Office at 617-495-9858.

For Academic Citation: