About
Joe Nye is University Distinguished Service Professor and former dean of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1958. He did postgraduate work at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He joined the Harvard Faculty in 1964, and taught one of the largest core curriculum courses in the college. In 2009, a poll of international relations scholars listed him as one of the most influential in the past twenty years and the most influential on American foreign policy.
He has also worked in three government agencies. From 1977 to 1979, Nye served as Deputy to the Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology and chaired the National Security Council Group on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In recognition of his service, he received the highest Department of State commendation, the Distinguished Honor Award. In 1993 and 1994, he was chair of the National Intelligence Council, which coordinates intelligence estimates for the President. He was awarded the Intelligence Community’s Distinguished Service Medal. In 1994 and 1995, he served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, where he also won the Distinguished Service Medal with an Oak Leaf Cluster.
Nye is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Academy of Diplomacy, and of the British Academy. He serves on several non-profit boards: as co-chair (with Brent Scowcroft) of the Aspen Strategy Group, chair of the North American Group of the Trilateral Commission, a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chair of the Pacific Forum, and a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also on advisory boards for TOTAL, Mitsubishi, and the Defense Department. He has served as a director of the Institute for East-West Security Studies, a director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a member of the advisory committee of the Institute of International Economics, and the American representative on the United Nations Advisory Committee on Disarmament Affairs. He has been a trustee of Wells College and of Radcliffe College. He is the recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Award from Princeton University, the Charles Merriam Award from the American Political Science Association, and the Palmes Academiques from the French government. In 2008, a poll of 2700 international relations scholars listed him as the most influential scholar on American foreign policy, and a 2011 poll rated him the fourth most influential scholar in international relations over the past 20 years.
He is the author of thirteen books and more than a hundred and fifty articles in professional and policy journals. His most recent publications are The Powers to Lead (2008), Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (2004), an anthology, Power in the Global Information Age (2004), a textbook Understanding International Conflict ,The Power Game: A Washington Novel (2004), and in 2011 The Future of Power which The Economist called “rigorous and convincing.” In addition, he has published policy articles in various newspapers and magazines, and his internationally syndicated column appears in papers in more than 70 countries. In addition to teaching at Harvard, Mr. Nye also has taught for brief periods in Geneva, Ottawa, and Oxford where he is a Visiting Professor and an honorary fellow. He has lived and done research in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Central America, Britain, France, Canada, and traveled to more than 100 countries.
His hobbies include fly fishing, hiking, skiing, gardening, hunting and working on his tree farm in New Hampshire. He is married to Molly Harding Nye, an art consultant and potter. They have three grown sons and nine grandchildren.
EDUCATION
Princeton University A.B. 1958, Public Affairs
Oxford University B.A. 1960, Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Harvard University Ph.D. 1964, Political Science
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
2004-present University Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard University
2005 Winant Visiting Professor, Balliol College, University of Oxford
1995-2004 Dean, John F. Kennedy School of Government and Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University
1994-95 U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs
1993-94 Chairman, National Intelligence Council
1989-93 Director, Center for Science & International Affairs and Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University
1989-92 Associate Dean for International Affairs, Harvard University
1989 (Spring) Visiting Scholar, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford
1985-90 Director, Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
1985 (Spring) Allis Chalmers Distinguished Professorship, Marquette University
1977-79 Deputy Undersecretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology
1978-84 Director, Center for Science & International Affairs
1974 Visiting Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London
1973 Visiting Professor, School of International Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
1968 Visiting Professor, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales, Geneva
1964-1995 Instructor, Assistant, Associate, and full Professor of Government, Harvard University
PRIZES & HONORS
2012 Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, Macquarie University
2011 Foreign Policy Top Global Thinkers of 2011
2010 Doctor of Social Science, honoris causa, Keio University
2010 Foreign Policy Distinguished Scholar Award, International Studies Association
2007 Fellow, British Academy
2007 Doctor of Social Science, honoris causa, King’s College London
2005 Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, St. Gallen University
2004 Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, Carleton University
2004 Woodrow Wilson Award, Princeton University
2004 Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Tufts University
2003 Palmes Academiques, Le Premier Ministre, France
2003 Charles E. Merriam Award, American Political Science Association
2001 Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford
1996 Honorary Fellow, Exeter College, University of Oxford
1995 Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster
1994 Intelligence Community Distinguished Service Medal
1993 Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center, Smithsonian Institute (January)
1979 Department of State Distinguished Honor Award
1964 Summer Thesis Prize, Ford Foundation Area Training Fellowship
1958 Summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Herrick Thesis Prize, Rhodes Scholar
