Four International Experts Named Senior Fellows

The Belfer Center is honored to be joined this semester by four distinguished leaders—two from the United States and two from Great Britain—who bring extensive experience and valuable insights to the Belfer Center and the larger Harvard community. Andrew Weber and Kurt Campbell share their expertise in biosecurity and the Asia-Pacific, respectively, while Douglas Alexander and Peter Westmacott focus on addressing issues through diplomacy and transatlantic relations.

Douglas Alexander

@D_G_Alexander

The Belfer Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project has selected former UK Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander as a senior fellow.

“Douglas Alexander’s appointment underscores our commitment to prepare a next generation of foreign policy leaders by having them learn from practitioners,” said Cathryn Clüver, executive director of the Future of Diplomacy Project.

Alexander will actively contribute to the work of the Project by facilitating seminars and master classes for Harvard Kennedy School degree students and by supporting the Project’s mission through research and analysis on global policy issues and transatlantic relations.

Alexander said, “Given the challenges we face today—from conflict and climate change to extreme poverty and nuclear proliferation—the world needs effective leadership and diplomacy in the coming years. I look forward to working with Kennedy School degree students and colleagues at the Belfer Center to analyze and address these issues in the years ahead.”

Kurt Campbell

Kurt Campbell, chairman and CEO of The Asia Group, LLC, and former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has been named a non-resident senior fellow at the Belfer Center.

“It is difficult to overstate the importance of the Asia-Pacific to America’s national security and prosperity,” said Belfer Center Director Graham Allison. “It is even more difficult to overstate Kurt Campbell’s qualifications on this critical subject..”

Widely credited with framing the Obama administration’s rebalance to Asia, Campbell will focus his research while at the Belfer Center on his forthcoming book, The Pivot: America’s Rediscovery of the Asia-Pacific Century.

“I am so pleased to join the Belfer Center and to engage with its enormously talented community of scholars,” Campbell said. “I know how stimulating Harvard is, and I am looking forward to illuminating discussions with faculty, fellows, and students as I research my new book.”

Andrew Weber

@AndyWeberNCB

Andrew Weber, head of global partnerships for Metabiota and former assistant secretary of defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, has been named a non-resident senior fellow at the Belfer Center.

“At the core of our work is a commitment to building a more secure, peaceful world,” said Belfer Center Director Graham Allison. “Andy has devoted his life to this cause.”

Weber is a renowned expert on countering global threats who helped lead the U.S. government’s response to the Ebola outbreak and played a key role in the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program. At the Belfer Center, he will develop a biosecurity project in conjunction with the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) in Washington, according to Allison.

Of the Belfer Center, Weber said, “I can’t think of a better intellectual home in which to help advance research to safeguard us from biological weapons and related threats.”

Peter Westmacott

@PeterWestmacott

Peter Westmacott, former British ambassador to the United States, has joined the Belfer Center as a senior fellow. Westmacott will also serve as an Institute of Politics resident fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.

Belfer Center Director Graham Allison said Ambassador Westmacott will bring to the Center and the Kennedy School extensive experience and insight in addressing international challenges and will provide valuable guidance for students and research fellows, in addition to producing his own research.

“Throughout my career, whether serving here in the U.S., in London, in the Middle East, or in Europe, I have been convinced that addressing the world’s most intractable problems requires the highest levels of transatlantic trust, understanding, and co-operation,” Westmacott said. “The Belfer Center makes a major contribution to this important work and I am very excited to have the chance to be part of it.”