Harvard and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA): Foreign Policy Research Center and Incubator of Presidential Advisors

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Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA) is one of the nation's premier institutions for research on foreign policy, comparative politics, security policy, and international relations. It has also been an incubator of presidential advisors on foreign policyBob Bowie, Mac Bundy, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In this insider and first-person book on WCFIA (formerly CFIA), Howard J. Wiarda explores Harvard's history and culture, the founding and development of WCFIA, and how this prestigious institution works. He examines the WCFIA seminar system, the fellows program, and the incredible flow of presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, and defense ministers who flow through WCFIA on an everyday basis. He looks at the research agenda at WCFIA, how it influences foreign policy, and the "in 'n outers" revolving door flow of WCFIA scholars and policy wonks into Washington policy-making at the highest levels. In the process the author provides revealing portraits of such eminent scholars and policy influentials as Gabriel Almond, Brzezinski, Stanley Hoffman, Sam Huntington, Kissinger, Joe Nye, Bob Putnam, Lucian Pye, Myron Wiener, and many others.

This book is written in an engaging style and includes the author's own experiences at Harvard and WCFIA over a forty-year period. The book is part of a series by the author on "Universities, Think Tanks, and War Colleges: The Changing Pattern of Foreign Policy Influence."

Reviews

Howard Wiarda's newest book tells an engaging story of his time at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and as such would appeal to both academic and more popular audiences. It is a very readable and interesting addition to his series of books that describe how influence over American foreign policy is shifting from universities to Washington think tanks. -- Lana Wylie, McMaster University
Howard Wiarda's new book is a fascinating insider's account of life, labor, and influence-mongering at one of the American foreign-policy establishment's most prestigious academic research centers. Based on more than three decades of first-hand experience, the book is part of Wiarda's ongoing examination of the interconnected worlds of think tanks, research centers, and war collegesand the roles they play in influencing US foreign policy. -- Michael Grow, author of U.S. Presidents and Latin American Interventions: Pursuing Regime Change in the Cold War

Author Bio

Howard J. Wiarda is Dean Rusk Professor of International Relations and head of the department of international affairs at the University of Georgia. He is the author of The Dutch Diaspora: The Netherlands and Its Settlements in Africa, Asia, and the Americas,Conservative Brain Trust: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of the American Enterprise Institute, An Introduction to Comparative Politics, The Crisis of American Foreign Policy, and Development on the Periphery: Democracy in Southern and Eastern Europe.