Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs Dean James Steinberg has announced that he will be stepping down as dean at the end of the academic year 2015–2016. Steinberg has been at the helm of the Maxwell School since 2011. He will remain at Syracuse and will continue to teach in the Maxwell School in his role as University Professor of social science, international affairs and law.
James Steinberg
During his time at the Maxwell School, Steinberg oversaw such developments as the establishment of the Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry at Maxwell and the founding of the Aging Studies Institute (ASI), a collaboration between the Maxwell School and the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. He launched a collaboration between Maxwell and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., that provides a new state-of-the-art home for Maxwell teaching and research in the heart of Washington’s policy research centers, and provides a broad range of educational, research and career development opportunities for students and faculty.
“Jim has brought even greater recognition and prominence to our distinguished Maxwell School,” says Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost Liz Liddy. “Through his time here, he has graciously shared his vast knowledge and experience in public affairs and public service with our students and faculty. His insights now go with a new generation of public servants looking to impact the world.”
Steinberg notes, “It has been an honor and a privilege to work with so many talented and dedicated people on behalf of this exceptional school. Together we have made great progress, and I look forward to continuing to lend my efforts to the University and the Maxwell School as University Professor in 2016.”
As part of the school’s 90th anniversary celebration hosted at CSIS in 2014, Steinberg established the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Spirit of Public Service Award and honored the inaugural recipient, Lauren Bush Lauren, founder of FEED Projects.
Also launched at that event was the Maxwell School’s 10th Decade Initiative, which in its first year has secured nearly $1 million to support interdisciplinary faculty proposals focused on citizenship.
Other accomplishments include the Maxwell School raising nearly $27 million in charitable support during Steinberg’s four years as Dean. Key support included:
Under Steinberg, 34 new faculty members were appointed at Maxwell, including Merril Silverstein, the Cantor Endowed Professor of Aging; Sean O’Keefe, University Professor and the Howard G. and S. Louise Phanstiel Chair in Strategic Management and Leadership; Rafael Fernandez de Castro, the Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations; and Amy Schwartz, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Professor of Public Affairs.
Steinberg led the Maxwell School to the #1 ranking in the U.S. News & World Report survey in 2012.
As Dean, Steinberg has regularly taught graduate and undergraduate classes, including East Asia Century, Republic to Superpower and Central Challenges in National Security Law and Policy.
Steinberg represented the University and the school around the globe presenting and visiting with government, civil society, business leaders and University alumni in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Spain, Brussels, Stockholm, Sao Paulo, India and Israel.
“The many accomplishments the school has attained during the past four years are the results of the work of an outstanding faculty, a tireless staff, an extraordinarily dedicated alumni body and an unmatched board of advisors,” Steinberg says.
Steinberg, an internationally recognized expert in public affairs and foreign policy, previously served as deputy secretary of state to Secretary Hillary Clinton, as dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, as vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, as deputy national security advisor to President Clinton and as director of the state department’s policy planning staff during the Clinton administration.
Steinberg’s most recent book is “Strategic Reassurance and Strategic Resolve: US-China Relations in the 21st Century” with Michael O’Hanlon (Princeton University Press, 2014). He also authored “Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power” (2008) with Kurt Campbell.
Steinberg is also a collaborator in the work of the Markle Foundation’s Economic Future Initiative, Rework America. The initiative released a book in June titled “America’s Moment: Creating Opportunity in the Connected Age,” which offers strategies to develop the talents and skills of workers for the future and for businesses to grow and create good and meaningful work to support shared prosperity.
In 2014, Steinberg was awarded the prestigious Joseph J. Kruzel Memorial Award for Public Service from the American Political Science Association. The Kruzel Award is given to a scholar with a distinguished career in national security affairs, both as an academic and a public servant.
Liddy, working with Chancellor Kent Syverud, will be creating a timetable for the search process for the next Maxwell School dean.
