New Leadership: Building on a Solid Foundation,
2005-Present
In June of 2005, Michael E. Brown was named Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs. Brown, who founded and directed the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, has a solid background in security policy and international affairs which complements the wide-ranging and interdisciplinary programs of the Elliott School.
In accepting the position, Brown said, “I am honored by the University’s invitation to become the dean of the GW Elliott School of International Affairs and a member of the faculty of both the Elliott School and the political science department. The Elliott School is one of the premier schools of international affairs in the world, known for both its cutting-edge scholarship and its superb teaching programs. It will play a leading role in advancing our understanding of the challenges of the 21st century and educating the next generation of national and international leaders. I look forward to working with the school's faculty, staff, students, and alumni and helping the school attain even higher levels of academic excellence and international prominence.”
Under Brown’s leadership, the Elliott School of International Affairs
has focused on three main areas: education, research, and engagement. Since
2005, the school has strengthened its capacity to provide a world-class education
in international affairs, produce cutting-edge scholarship on important global
issues, and serve as a center for the discussion of important international
trends. Its initiatives on these fronts were quickly recognized: In a 2007
survey of scholars, both the Elliott School’s undergraduate and graduate
programs were ranked among the top 10, a feat achieved by only four other schools:
Columbia, Georgetown, Harvard, and Princeton.
In the area of education, the Elliott School has launched new programs, hired
new faculty, and enriched study abroad opportunities for students. A new M.A.
program in Middle
East Studies, launched in fall 2007, received more than 100 applications
in its first year. The program features courses on the politics, economics,
international relations, history, and cultures of the Middle East. In December
2006, the School won a multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract to run the
Department of Defense’s National
Security Studies Program. This prestigious program trains senior military
officers and civilians in the U.S. national security community, broadening
the school’s traditional academic constituency to current and future
leaders outside traditional degree programs. To enhance both undergraduate
and graduate programs, the Elliott School hired six new full-time faculty members
specializing in Middle East studies, U.S. foreign policy, and international
security. Finally, three new institutions — Jawaharlal Nehru University,
India; European University at St. Petersburg, Russia; and Carlton University,
Canada — have joined the school’s global network of partner
universities, giving graduate students even more opportunities to study
abroad.
The School launched two new research institutes in fall 2007. The Institute
for International Economic Policy (IIEP), which houses the M.A. program
in International
Trade and Investment Policy, supports high-quality academic and policy
research that analyzes the emerging global economy. Faculty members and research
scholars focus on economic, political, legal, and historical analysis of
international trade, international finance and development. The Elliott School
also launched the Institute for Middle
East Studies (IMES), which supports research by faculty and students
focusing on the modern Middle East. Drawing together faculty in the social
sciences, humanities, and professional schools, IMES focuses geographically
on the Arab world, Turkey, Israel, and Iran and temporally on the modern
period. IMES is also home to both undergraduate and
graduate degree programs in Middle East Studies.
The Elliott School has bolstered its mission of engagement by welcoming hundreds
of leaders and experts from around the world to speak at special events. In
less than one year, the Elliott School sponsored lectures with three Nobel
Peace Prize laureates. Shirin Ebadi, courageous Iranian human rights activist,
and Kofi Annan, then secretary-general of the United Nations, spoke on campus
in May 2006, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter spoke at GW in March 2007
as part of the Middle East Policy Forum. In 2006, the school launched a major
new speaker series featuring Distinguished Women in International Affairs.
Featured speakers in that series include Paula Dobriansky, under secretary
for democracy and global affairs at the U.S. Department of State; Dana Priest,
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at The Washington Post; Her Excellency
Hunaina Sultan Ahmed Al-Mughairy, ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman, and
the first Arab woman to serve as ambassador to the United States; Nancy Birdsall,
president of the Center for Global Development; and Her Excellency Sheikha
Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, president of the United Nations General Assembly. In
addition, the Elliott School launched two new event series: the Middle East
Policy Forum in spring 2007 and the Security Policy Forum in fall 2007. Another
of the Elliott School’s signature programs, the Ambassadors Forum, brought
diplomats from around the world to the GW campus to share their insights and
perspectives.
Updated: February 2008
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