Political Scientist Jeremy Weinstein Named as New Director of Stanford Global Studies

Photo credit: Rod Searcey

SGS is pleased to welcome Jeremy M. Weinstein, Professor of Political Science, as the new Sakurako and William Fisher Family Director of the Stanford Global Studies Division.

Part of the Stanford community since 2004, Professor Weinstein has worked at the highest levels of government on major foreign policy challenges. Between 2013 and 2015, he served as Deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and before that as the Chief of Staff at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

During President Obama's first term, he served as Director for Development and Democracy on the National Security Council staff from 2009 to 2011. Prior to joining the White House staff, Weinstein served as an advisor to the Obama campaign.

"It is a privilege to take over the leadership of SGS after a set of extraordinary leaders, including most recently Norman Naimark," says Weinstein, who has also served as Director of the Center for African Studies. "SGS occupies a really central place on the Stanford campus and in the School of Humanities and Sciences as the meeting point for a set of educational and research activities around issues of global and regional importance."

"Stanford Global Studies is central to the university's goal to prepare students to be responsible, engaged citizens in our complex and interdependent world," says Richard Saller, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. "Jeremy's expertise on transnational issues such as human rights, democracy and development, combined with his deep interest in area studies and experience in government make him a perfect fit for this position. I look forward to seeing SGS thrive under his leadership."

To learn more about Professor Weinstein, read our interview with him below.

What are you looking forward to as the new Director of Stanford Global Studies?

First, the opportunity to engage across the area studies centers and to think about how we build on the strength of each of the centers; how we harness their passionate, but also deep, understanding of problems in particular parts of the world to think about phenomena that are transnational in nature.

The second thing that excites me is that we have a really hungry and energetic student body at every level. I think we have a special challenge at SGS to figure out how to be one of the key parts of campus that helps students acquire a global competency, a readiness, to pursue their career ambitions, but to do so in a way where they have the language ability, the local and contextual knowledge, and the understanding of global issues to be effective.

How has your experience in government influenced your teaching?

One of my main teaching goals is to help students who are interested in jobs in the policy world understand how the mindset of a social scientist is actually relevant to policy questions. I always think about the policy dilemmas that we confront and the policy options that are on the table as hypotheses. Hypotheses about the relationship between something that government might do and outcomes we want to see in the world. I think that kind of analytic rigor and use of evidence in the policymaking process is an increasingly relevant part of how governments are making decisions, and so helping students understand social science tools, but also their utility, is a key part of my teaching mission.

It has always been my view, and one of the reasons that I've pursued this path with a foot in both worlds, that I wanted to bring real depth of understanding of places in the world to the policymaking table. I also wanted to bring an understanding of a set of substantive issues, which for me included civil war, post conflict reconstruction and transition, ethnic politics and the design and functioning of democratic institutions. In my teaching, I try to help students understand the value of making investments in area and regional-specific knowledge—having the experiences on the ground, developing language abilities, accumulating field experience. These are things that are important for being effective.

The last thing I'd say is that Washington is a place where often conversations can feel insular, and so this new course I'm teaching, Hacking for Diplomacy, is an opportunity to help people outside of Washington understand the kinds of challenges that government is confronting and to learn something about how the process works, but also to create a pathway for people to contribute new ideas and fresh perspectives, and in this case, potential technology applications to these problems.

What drew you to public service?

It has always been a part of my DNA. I was super involved in school and city politics before I graduated high school. I was always very interested not just in local issues, but also the U.S. role in the world. I can remember watching the Iran-Contra hearings when I was a kid and being really interested in U.S. primacy and how it was being used for good or for ill around the world.

My passion for Africa really began when I was 19 and I moved to a township outside of Cape Town after Nelson Mandela was elected. This move focused my attention on the challenges of countries on the continent and the prospects for a tremendous set of economic, political and social changes that were beginning to spread. There was this sense that understanding these issues had to be paired with figuring out how to effectively use tools of US foreign policy and international institutions like the UN to actually bring about positive changes. So for me, they've sort of been inseparable parts of my life from the very beginning.

Any books you've read recently that you recommend?

Just Mercy, a memoir by Bryan Stevenson about his work fighting for the rights of people on death row in Alabama. It's a truly incredible treatment of the challenges of our criminal justice system, and the story of one man’s effort to bring about changes in the system. It's an inspiring story. I also recommend people read a follow up article in the New Yorker about Stevenson's efforts to memorialize lynching in the southern U.S.; a part of our history that people know about, but hasn't received the attention that so many other aspects of U.S. history have received.