Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service

For some time, I have wanted a regular channel of communication to tell all of you about what is exciting and interesting in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and to get your reactions and thoughts. This newsletter, which we hope to bring you twice a year, is a first step in this direction.

I can think of nothing better to start with than the news of our recent #1 ranking in the nation in a survey of international affairs education at the master’s degree level and #4 (behind Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford) at the undergraduate level. The rankings, reported in the spring issue of Foreign Policy magazine, were based on a survey of over one thousand international relations scholars. At a celebration here on campus in May, Dean Emeritus Peter Krogh recognized the foundations laid over the decades by faculty and staff to reach this level of achievement. No one, of course, has been more important to the success of our School than our second founder himself, Peter Krogh. This news has given the School and University an enormous boost, for it acknowledges what I always felt was true—that we offer the best international affairs education in the country.

On May 19, we awarded 311 master’s degrees and 363 bachelor’s degrees to SFS students. Dr. Jessica Tuchman Mathews, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, delivered a commencement address warning her audience of the difficulties we face with America’s standing in the world today at its lowest point ever.

Like Jessica, I do not think our country is in a good place. We are reminded daily of our entanglement in Iraq and the death and maiming of thousands of U.S. and allied servicemen and women and many thousands more innocent Iraqis. Moreover, it was an entanglement chosen by our leaders in Congress and the Executive Branch, who formulated and implemented this policy or voted to support it. Meanwhile, many other critical issues still need to be addressed: the Palestinian- Israeli conflict; Iran’s hegemonic and nuclear weapons ambitions; North Korea’s continuing nuclear weapons and ballistics program; the incredible loss of life in Africa from conflict and disease; a rising China and reinvigorated Russia; and the looming consequences we face from global climate change.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for America is sorting out our proper place in this globalized world of threats and opportunities. As the 2008 elections approach, candidates from both parties have a genuine opportunity to describe their vision of what truly threatens America, what responsibility we have to address problems around the world, how we lead others, and how best to cope with those who oppose us.

The rest of us—no matter what our views on the invasion four years ago—should join the struggle to figure out how to protect our interests and meet our responsibilities in Iraq and elsewhere, now and in the future. I am hopeful that SFS will continue to provide the kind of education that our citizen leaders need. As you will see in the pages that follow, we are breaking new ground in some areas and growing in others. We hope to expand our academic programs in Asian studies so that our graduates are better prepared for the many challenges and opportunities in that region of the world. We are expanding our offerings in the field of international development and are launching a new initiative entitled “Improving the Human Condition” so that students interested in international health, complex humanitarian emergencies and development are better served at SFS. Fund-raising efforts for both these initiatives are underway.

Our new Program in Jewish Civilization enjoys increased support through donations from a Founders Fund, and works with the expanded Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, as well as other School and University programs that help build understanding among the world’s major religious groups. SFS Qatar, going into its third year of operation this fall, is becoming far better integrated with main campus faculty and students while delivering an educational program that has an importance well beyond Education City in Doha. The Mortara Center for International Studies is providing a forum for faculty throughout Georgetown University, as well as practitioners from Washington and around the globe to exchange views on cutting-edge foreign policy issues. In future communications I will explain more about how our initiatives are constrained by two major problems: the critical shortage of space on campus and the growing need for scholarship funds to help us compete for the best students.

We had a record number of applications to our undergraduate program this year and those we admitted were truly outstanding in every way. Our students, winners of Marshall, Rhodes, Fulbright, Mitchell and so many other awards and honors, are cause for optimism about our future. They continue to put their classroom education to work in innovative ways—whether through organizing the annual international economics conference known as the Carroll Round, or producing the nationally distributed Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.

We hope you enjoy this first issue of the SFS Newsletter.