As part of its tenth anniversary, I was named the inaugural Mentor of the Fellows of the Albright Institute at Wellesley College for the 2018-19 academic year. The Institute is named for Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a Wellesley alumna, that year celebrating her 60th reunion.

I first met Madeleine Albright in 1988, when she spoke for my EPIIC symposium on “Foreign Policy Imperatives for the Next Presidency” as the then Foreign Policy advisor to Democratic Presidential Candidate Michael Dukakis.

I was introduced to the Albright Institute by then Faculty Director, Panagiotis Takis Metaxas. I first met him when he visited my home, invited by my alumnus and friend Professor Lucas Kello, the Director of the Centre for Technology and Global Affairs at Oxford, where I am a non-resident research associate and adviser and Takis is a lecturer and advisor.

We immediately found that our academic sensibilities and ideals were serendipitously aligned. Exploring the programs and values of the Albright Institute, I quickly learned that its mission and pedagogical approach clearly resonated and reflected that of the Institute I founded at Tufts. I expressed to Takis my desire to get back into the classroom, and to have the privilege to continue to mentor undergraduate students.

In September of 2018, at Takis’ invitation, I delivered my first talk and held an ensuing discussion on "Distorted History and the Perversion of Politics." I chose the theme of democracy, historical memory and the distortion politics in the context of the fraught current moment in our politics, and to enable us to discuss themes of Secretary Albright's new book, Fascism: A Warning. They are of both of profound personal interest to me and, I believe, critical to understand our own current juncture in history. It was Albright’s first formal event of the year.

I later assisted the Fellows in the creation of their small-group research presentations for the Institute's Wintersession (program here) in January. They then presented at the end of the session to their scholar-in-residence, a friend, Amb. Samantha Power, whom I first met when she spoke for the initial meeting of the VII Photo Agency at my Institute. (Samantha once wonderfully charged me as the “Raphael Lemkin of education,” a sobriquet I wear with honor)

I also contributed to the mid-semester programming of the Albright Institute, securing a presentation by members of the “Seven of VII” (the female members of VII Photo Agency) on their joint project, “Her Take: (Re)Thinking Masculinity.” Among the Seven is Nichole Sobecki, a wonderful former EPIIC student, and one of the first formidable student leaders in the Institute’s inaugural photojournalism program, Exposure. One of her colleagues who presented with her was Sara Terry, who was one of Exposures mentors, and whose Aftermath Project co-led Exposure trips in Uganda and at Wounded Knee.

Albright’s new Faculty Director, Professor Stacie Goddard, is a Professor of Political Science with a focus on international security, weapons, and the conduct of war. She enthusiastically received our vision of potentially creating a Pugwash-related program with the Albright Institute, allied with her seminar on Nuclear Politics.

Stacie endorsed our exploratory overture to the Carnegie Corporation for support of an eventual program and forum. In this COVID-19 era it is on hold.