Sarah Sewall

Lecturer in Public Policy
Program Director
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
Office Address
Rubenstein-216
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox 14
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Contact
Phone: 617-496-4843
Fax: 617-495-4297
Email: Sarah_Sewall@ksg.harvard.edu
Sarah Sewall

Profile

Sarah Sewall teaches international affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she also directs the Program on National Security and Human Rights. She led the Obama Transitions National Security Agency Review process in 2008. During the Clinton Administration, Sewall served as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance. From 1983-1996, she served as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell on the Democratic Policy Committee and the Senate Arms Control Observer Group. Before joining Harvard, Sewall was at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences where she edited The United States and the International Criminal Court (2002). Her more recent publications include the introduction to the University of Chicago Edition of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual (2007) and, with John White, Parameters of Partnership: U.S. Civil-Military Relations in the 21st Century (2009). She is a member of the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee and the Center for Naval Analyses Defense Advisory Committee. She graduated from Harvard College and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Courses

Not Offered

  • IGA-309 American Warfare and the Humanitarian Ethic: Law, Norms and Practice
  • IGA-316 Stategies and Politics of Complex US Military Operations.

Media Expertise

Sarah Sewall welcomes media inquiries on the following subjects:

Additional experts may be found by clicking on each subject listed. You may contact faculty directly or if you need assistance contact the Communications Office at 617-495-1115.

Research

For a complete list of faculty citations from 2001 - present, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School Research Report Online.

Selected Publication Citations:

  • Academic Journals
    • Sewall, Sarah. "America After the Elections: A Strategy of Conservation." Survival 50.5 (October 2008): 79-98.
  • Book Chapters
    • Sewall, Sarah. "The United States and Multilateral Peace Operations." Multilateralism and U.S. Foreign Policy: Ambivalent Engagement. Ed. Shepard Forman and Stewart Patrick. Lynne Rienner, 2002, 191-224.
    • Sewall, Sarah. "Introduction to the University of Chicago Press edition. A Radical Field Manual." The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. Ed. United States Army and United States Marine Corps. University of Chicago Press, 2007, xxi-xliii.
    • Sewall, Sarah. "Leading Warriors in the Long War." Military Leadership: In Pursuit of Excellence. Ed. William E. Rosenbach. Westview Press, 2009, 121-132.
  • HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series
    • Sewall, Sarah. "A Strategy of Conservation: American Power and the International System." HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP08-028, May 2008.
  • Magazine and Newspaper Articles
    • Sewall, Sarah. "Crafting a New Counterinsurgency Doctrine." Foreign Service Journal (September 2007): 33-40.
    • Sewall, Sarah. "Technology's Power to Narrow Our View." TIME Magazine. May 22, 2008.
  • Op-Eds
    • Sewall, Sarah. "He Wrote the Book: Can He Follow It?" Washington Post, February 25, 2007.
    • Sewall, Sarah. "A Heavy Hand in Afghanistan." Boston Globe, June 15, 2007.
    • Sewall, Sarah. "Ethics on the Battlefield." San Francisco Chronicle, July 1, 2007.
    • Sewall, Sarah. "Just How Is This Drawdown Supposed to Work, Anyway?" Niemanwatchdog.org, January 4, 2008.
  • Research Papers/Reports
    • Sewall, Sarah, ed. "Implementing the Rule of Law and Human Rights in Stability Operations." Project on the Means of Intervention, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center, September 25-26, 2006.
    • Sewall, Sarah, ed. "Counterinsurgency in Iraq and Implications of Irregular Warfare for the United States Government." Carr Center National Security and Human Rights Program: Project on the Means of Intervention Workshop Papers Volume 4: 2005-2006, January 2007.
    • Sewall, Sarah, ed. "Learning and Integration: Escalation of Force Procedures and Traffic Control Point Operations." Project on the Means of Intervention, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and U.S. Army PKSOI, with U.S. Army CALL, March 26-27, 2007.
    • Sewall, Sarah, and John P. White. "Parameters of Partnership: U.S. Civil-Military Relations in the 21st Century." The Harvard Kennedy School Project on Civil-Military Relations, 2009.