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The Next 50 Years
SIS faculty contemplates what’s ahead
for the study of international affairs

SIS Faculty

The School of International Service first broke ground in 1957 and opened its doors in 1958. The School has since become the largest school of international affairs in the United States. As the faculty, staff and students celebrate this anniversary and the milestones achieved, we also now look toward the next 50 years of international service, and contemplate the challenges and opportunities ahead.

SIS faculty members were recently asked to share their wisdom and thoughts on rising issues in international relations and potential focal points for future studies. These ideas were generated to consider areas of new research and future academic programs so that SIS continues its leadership in the area of international affairs education. Each professor’s contribution demonstrates his or her particular expertise as well as a commitment to maintaining and furthering the standard of excellence at SIS.

"The 21st century is being marked by the shift from a state-centered world to a multilevel order. With the ascendance of several powerful forces, such as transnational corporations and civil society groups, the foremost challenge is global governance."

James H. Mittelman, University Professor
Comparative and Regional Studies
"As international relations professionals in the United States, we can accept responsibility for facilitating communications and interaction with our colleagues around the globe. Facilitating the establishment of global communications and information linkages with our colleagues around the world will translate the promise of ‘service’ that the name of our school bears into a visible reality. SIS could serve as a global information switchboard for issues such as human rights, for example."

Abdul Aziz Said, Professor
Founding Director, International Peace and Conflict Resolution
"I believe that the study of how international human rights norms translate into action at the national and local levels will be a predominant focus of international affairs studies and that essential to this work is whether and how local ownership of international human rights norms can help to ensure our survival. In the coming years, we will see many attempts at international institution building, enhanced efforts at enforcement, and increasingly sophisticated systems for monitoring and conflict prevention, but none of these efforts will be of significance unless there is meaningful engagement in these issues at the local level."

Julie Mertus, Associate Professor
Co-director, Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs
"Centuries hence, our times will be best remembered as the moment that hundreds of millions of Asians lifted themselves out of poverty through economic integration. The challenges of this century are to spread the lessons of poverty alleviation to all corners of the earth, to achieve environmental sustainability throughout the planet, and to promote democratic participation in order to give people a greater say over their lives."

Stephen J. Silvia, Associate Professor
International Economic Relations
Director of Doctoral Studies, SIS
"I see a broad backlash against the idea that there is one way to be modern – that is, one way to organize economies, politics, and society more generally. One of the challenges for the international community over the coming decades, then, will be how to deal with difference: cultural exceptionalism in the market, in human rights, and in political organization."

Kristin Diwan, Assistant Professor
Comparative and Regional Studies
"The most crucial issues in the future of international affairs studies are related to the capacity of scholars and practitioners to provide policy makers with the necessary knowledge and expertise on how to effectively and peacefully resolve both international and intranational conflicts. Another pressing issue is the disastrous rate of environmental destruction (both natural resources as well as human resources). Overcoming global environmental deterioration requires all states and humans to cooperate and creatively resolve their differences in order to save what is left of our planet. To accomplish this task we need to create and sustain a culture of peace and nonviolence as the base for all human institutions."

Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Professor
International Peace and Conflict Resolution
"Climate change is happening much faster than expected. Forecasts that were at one time far into the future will be realities—and challenges—for the next generation of leaders. It is not that climate change alone will alone alter the trajectory of conflict in society, but it will intensify old problems and lead to new ones."

James R. Lee, Adjunct Professor
International Development
Associate Director for Technical Support and Training, Center for Teaching Excellence
"One of the most crucial issues facing the study of international affairs has to do with the organization of our research. Specifically, as the practitioners of international affairs research become ever more disciplinarily diverse, and as new topics continually emerge, we must strive to avoid fragmentation and instead continue to seek out overlapping themes, patterns, and causal chains that we observe in our analyses and our world. Doing so requires challenging—but ultimately rewarding—communication among a wide variety of actors, including scholars as well as students, policymakers, and activists."

Rachel Sullivan Robinson, Assistant Professor
Comparative & Regional Studies
"Over the next 50 years, the continuing economic decline of the United States will have dramatic consequences. Most importantly, this economic decline will fundamentally challenge the ability of the United States to exercise hegemonic leadership. The struggling dollar is only the first sign of what is to yet to come. The United States must carefully examine its role in world affairs and make real changes. If not, Americans might be willing to lead, but there might be no followers."

Randolph B. Persaud, Associate Professor
Comparative & Regional Studies
"The foreseeable future of international relations will be characterized by a need to reach across cultural and religious barriers in an age of globalization and increasing turmoil. Without dialogue, knowledge and friendship, human society—all of us, everywhere and at any time in the 21st century and beyond—will face a more dangerous, violent and uncertain future. We must do everything to encourage understanding between cultures and societies."

Akbar S. Ahmed, Professor
Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies