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

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 policy-Bob 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.