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Graham Allison is Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. As “Founding Dean” of the modern School of Government, under his leadership, from 1977 to 1989, a small, undefined program grew twenty-fold to become a major professional school of public policy and government.
Dr. Allison has served as Special Advisor the Secretary of Defense under President Reagan and as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and Plans under President Clinton, where he coordinated DOD strategy and policy towards Russia, Ukraine, an the other states of the former Soviet Union. He has the sole distinction of having twice been awarded the Department of Defense’s highest civilian award, the Distinguished Public Service Medal, first by Secretary Cap Weinberger and second by Secretary Bill Perry. He served as a member of the Defense Policy Board for Secretaries Weinberger, Carlucci, Cheney, Aspin, Perry, and Cohen.
Dr. Allison’s publications include: Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis(1971), recently released in an updated and revised second edition (1999), which ranks among the best-sellers in political science with more than 400,000 copies in print; Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact (2000); Avoiding Nuclear Anarchy: Containing the Threat of Loose Russian Nuclear Weapons and Fissile Material (1996). Dr. Allison’s latest book, Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, was published in 2004, is now in its third printing, and was selected by The New York Times as one of the “100 most notable books of the year.”