To the HKS Community,

I am thrilled to announce that Professor Meghan O’Sullivan will become the next director of our Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She is the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at the Kennedy School and has taught here since 2008.

Professor O’Sullivan is a global thought-leader on the geopolitics of energy, with her scholarship on the impact of significant changes in the energy system (from advances in technology to extract oil and gas to the global move away from carbon-intensive fuels) shaping the views of both policymakers and academics. Her publications include Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power and Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism.

Professor O’Sullivan has served in multiple senior policymaking roles and has advised national security officials in both Republican and Democratic administrations. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her public service, including the U.S. Defense Department’s highest honor for civilians (the Distinguished Public Service Medal) and the State Department’s Superior Honor Award (which she has received three times). She is currently a member of U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s Foreign Policy Advisory Board. Between 2004 and 2007, she was special assistant to President George W. Bush and was Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan during the last two years of her tenure.

The Belfer Center consistently ranks as the world’s top academic think tank, advancing policy-relevant knowledge in the areas of international relations, security, technology, science, and energy and the environment. Professor O’Sullivan will begin her appointment as director on July 1st.

I want to express my deep gratitude to Eric Rosenbach, a member of our faculty who has served as Co-Director of the Belfer Center during the past several years.

Please see more about Professor O’Sullivan and the Belfer Center in the press release. And please join me in thanking and congratulating Professor O’Sullivan for taking on this important role!

 

Best wishes,

Doug