Wilson School dean may join State Department

Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80 is slated to become the head of policy planning at the Department of State under Hillary Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of State, according to several media outlets.

The Associated Press and Reuters reported Thursday that anonymous sources have confirmed that Clinton intends to pick Slaughter for the post. The Washington Times, the Nelson Report, a daily international issues newsletter for Washington politicians, and a blog run by Foreign Policy magazine all have said that Slaughter was slated for the position as well.

When reached by phone Tuesday evening, Slaughter declined to comment on the matter. She could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

The news comes as Clinton prepares for next week’s confirmation hearings for her cabinet appointment. Slaughter’s appointment would not require confirmation by the Senate.

Wilson School professor Stanley Katz, who is a member of the Obama transition committee, said in an e-mail that he has heard the news from several sources.

“I heard last week that the job had been offered,” he said. “I imagine that it is true.”

He added that his “understanding is that [Slaughter] will resign as dean and take leave as a professor.”

Slaughter, the author of “A New World Order” and “The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith with Our Values in a Dangerous World,” spent a one-year sabbatical in the 2007-08 academic year in Shanghai with her husband, Wilson School professor Andrew Moravcsik, and their two sons.

Slaughter is the co-author of the final report of the Princeton Project on National Security (PPNS), which highlights major threats to American national security and presents potential policy solutions and guidelines. The report, published in 2006, was co-written by foreign policy expert and Wilson School professor G. John Ikenberry and had more than 400 contributors, including former Secretary of State George Schultz ’42 and former National Security Adviser Anthony Lake GS ’74.

In an interview with monthly foreign policy publication The Washington Diplomat last September, Slaughter noted that the PPNS was partly inspired by George Kennan ’25’s “X” essay.

Kennan, the first director of policy planning at the State Department, introduced the containment doctrine that would define the next 40 years of U.S. foreign policy in his 1942 essay.

“In a way, we set out to write a collective ‘X’ article, to do together what no one person in our highly specialized world could hope to do alone,” Slaughter said. “I don’t think that even someone of George Kennan’s caliber could tackle the breadth of issues required to formulate a successful national security strategy today.”

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Slaughter donated $2,300 — the maximum amount permitted by law — to Clinton’s primary campaign. She also contributed $1,500 to Obama’s primary campaign in late March. Moravcsik donated the maximum to Obama’s campaign but none to Clinton’s.

Before Slaughter became dean of the Wilson School in September 2002, she taught international law at Harvard and the University of Chicago. She is also a former president of the American Society of International Law and currently serves on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations. A Wilson School concentrator, Slaughter received her M.Phil in international affairs from Oxford on a Sachs scholarship before attending Harvard Law School. She returned to Oxford to earn her Ph.D. in international relations.