Meghan O’Sullivan Named Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School

O'Sullivan is affiliated with the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

CAMBRIDGE, MA - A former top Bush Administration official is joining the faculty at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Meghan O'Sullivan, who served as special assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004-07, has been named the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, as announced by Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Dean David T. Ellwood.

In addition to her time at the National Security Council, O'Sullivan's career in public service includes time in Iraq working for the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003-04 and helping negotiate the bilateral security agreement and non-military strategic framework agreement between Iraq and the United States in the fall of 2008. She also worked in policy planning at the U.S. State Department, where she was the senior advisor to the special envoy to the Irish Peace Process, and her portfolio included Iran, Libya, Syria, and relations with the Muslim world. O'Sullivan is a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, and she is the author of "Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism."

"Meghan O'Sullivan has served our nation with great distinction, leading the National Security Council efforts in Iraq. She was a leading advocate of the surge in Iraq, which ultimately changed the tenor of the war and the nation's subsequent reconstruction," said Ellwood. "I am enormously proud that Dr. O'Sullivan is teaching at the Kennedy School and sharing her experiences, scholarship and expertise with our students and future world leaders."

O'Sullivan, who earned a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and a master's degree in economics and a doctorate in political science from Oxford University, is an affiliate of the school's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She teaches courses on American foreign and security policy in general and the Middle East and South Asia in particular. Her areas of research include the geopolitics of energy, nation-building, counterinsurgency, decision making in foreign policy, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Meghan is a model of what the school and the Belfer Center aspire to: fact-based analysis that advances policy-relevant knowledge about major public policy issues on one hand, and skillful participation in the arena of policymaking on the other," said Belfer Center Director Graham Allison. "She exemplifies Jeane Kirkpatrick's fierce independence of mind and artful capacity to make a difference in policy."

O'Sullivan remarked, "I am honored to accept this chair, established in memory of Jeane Kirkpatrick - a model scholar-practitioner, an intellectual leader, and a person of enormous spirit and conviction. I am looking forward to continuing my work with the faculty and students of Harvard Kennedy School, which is the ideal place to blend public service and scholarship and to make a contribution to debates on the most vital issues of our time."

The Kirkpatrick Professorship is made possible through the generous support of Leo Kahn and Emily Gantt Kahn to recognize and honor the lives and careers of Evron and Jeane Kirkpatrick. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the Reagan Administration and held several other senior positions in the federal government. Evron Kirkpatrick had a noted career in academe and political science, teaching at Minnesota, Howard and Georgetown Universities and serving as director of the American Political Science Foundation. Harvard Kennedy School Professors Stephen Walt and John Ruggie have previously held the chair.

###