Joseph Nye

Honorary Professor Joseph Nye

Joseph S. Nye, Jr. is University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University and from 1995 to 2004 was dean of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Prior to assuming the deanship he served as U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, in which position he won two Distinguished Service medals, and was chair of the National Intelligence Council.

Dr. Nye originally joined the Harvard faculty in 1964, serving as director of the Center for International Affairs. In a 2008 poll of international relations scholars, he was rated the most influential scholar in the field on American foreign policy, and in 2011 Foreign Policy named him one of the top 100 global thinkers.

From 1977 to 1979, Dr. Nye was deputy to the undersecretary of state for security assistance, science, and technology and chaired the National Security Council Group on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Nye's most recent books are:

• Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (2004)
• The Power Game: A Washington Novel (2004)
• The Powers to Lead (2008)
• The Future of Power (2011).

Nye received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Princeton University. He did postgraduate work at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an honorary member of The British Academy. Dr. Nye is North American chairman of the Trilateral Commission.