Convocation  Remarks

In addition to marking the start of the academic year, Convocation is also an occasion when the Dean reports briefly on the State of the School. I am pleased to report once again that the condition of the Fletcher School is excellent. As we look around this auditorium, we see some of the results of our continuing commitment to improve our space, modernize our classrooms, and insure that the physical appearance of Fletcher matches its academic excellence.

For the second year in succession, applications for admission to the School were at record levels, and once again we have enrolled an outstanding class of new students in our MALD, MA and doctoral residential programs.
Our innovative Global Master of Arts program (GMAP), a combination of residencies and internet mediated distance learning, continues to grow. In July, the third GMAP class met here in Medford for its final residence and the awarding of MA degrees. Last month, the fourth class of forty-two students – the highest number yet – convened at the school for their first two week residency. I am pleased to report that this next March we will begin a second GMAP program offered for students from the United States Department of Defense, other U.S. Executive agencies, and foreign governments. Clearly, GMAP has become one of Fletcher’s signature programs.

I am particularly pleased to welcome five new full time members of the Fletcher faculty:
Louis Aucoin, Associate Research Professor in the Institute for Human Security;
Katrina Burgess, Assistant Professor of International Political Economy;
Carolyn Gideon, Assistant Professor of International Communications and Technology;
Adil Najam, Associate Professor of International Politics and Negotiation; and
George Prevelakis, the Konstantine Karamanlis Professor in Hellenic and Southeastern European Studies.

As nearly as I have been able to determine this is the largest number of new full-time faculty that Fletcher has ever welcomed. I am not counting the eleven faculty who taught Fletcher’s first curriculum of twelve courses in 1933-34. They were after all only part-time at the Fletcher School and were on loan from that excellent university down the hill from here in Cambridge.
For the new professors at Fletcher, let me note that you are joining a faculty of remarkable men and women committed to the proposition that excellence in teaching and accomplished scholarship go hand-in-hand – that scholarship informs and inspires teaching and that teaching reinforces scholarship.

For newly enrolled students as well as new faculty and staff, let me say that you are indeed joining a community, not just an academic institution. When I first came to Fletcher a bit more than two years ago I was somewhat skeptical about what I kept hering about the Fletcher community. Suffice it to say that I have become convinced. This is a community that fosters intimacy and trust. It is built on principles of civility and mutual respect. Our members consistently demonstrate a willingness to listen carefully to the opinions and observations of others and even – occasionally to change their own opinions in response to what they hear. I have been struck by the extent to which we are able to have constructive conversations about difficult issues. Given the state of the world today, I am fear that we will have no shortage of difficult issues with which to deal, but I am confident also that we will continue to have constructive conversations.

As for the mission of the Fletcher School, I believe that it is today more relevant than ever. Seventy years ago, one of the first descriptions of Fletcher’s mission spoke about educating a trained leadership in international affairs by providing instruction “in those fundamental aspects of international relations best calculated to provide a clear understanding of the nature and functioning of the present world order.” Today, we speak of “Preparing Leaders with a Global Perspective” -- pretty much the same thing.
Seventy years ago Fletcher determined that it could offer sufficient insight into the nature of the world order by offering a grand total of twelve courses. Today, of course, we live in an ever more complex world, and we offer many times that number of courses as we continue to try to provide a clear understanding of the nature and functioning of the world.

Convocation is primarily an occasion to look ahead – to the promise and excitement of the new academic year, to new challenges and new accomplishments. But I think that we should also reflect at least briefly on the recent past. To say that the past year has been a period of challenge for the international community in general and the United States in particular is a severe understatement.

We have experienced a year in which the major powers were unable to agree on the terms under which the United States would be justified in the use of force against Iraq. We have seen a rapid military victory and the unseating of what was clearly a reprehensible regime in Bagdad. But we have also experienced confusion and uncertainty as to the stated purpose of our use of military force. Was this an act of humanitarian intervention? Or was it an act of preemptive defense aimed at eliminating an imminent security threat to the United States and other countries?

In any event, the United States and its allies now find themselves the owners of Iraq, obligated to provide security and means of livelihood to a population that seems at best ambivalent about an American-led occupation. As difficult as the current situation seems and as more dangerous as I fear it could become, we have no choice but to stay the course in Iraq. I take some encouragement from recent indications that the American Administration is now prepared to return to the United Nations to seek greater international assistance in meeting the pressing needs for security and economic reconstruction in Iraq. I very much hope that we can reconstitute a broad framework of international cooperation. The stakes are very high for Iraq, for the United States and for the UN.

More fundamentally, the United States and other powers need to strengthen mechanisms of international cooperation to respond to a broad range of security concerns arising from international terrorism, failed states in Africa and elsewhere, and the threatened proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in North Korea, Iran and elsewhere. I am not talking only or even mainly about military cooperation. Military power may sometimes be a necessary component of our search for security, and military strength is often essential to effective diplomacy. But military power alone will almost never be a sufficient response. As one who has spent much of his life as a practicing diplomat, I believe that diplomacy should be in almost all cases our first line of defense. We must improve dramatically our capability act together to address the underlying causes of threats to security. We will indeed need national leaders with a global perspective, leaders of the sort that Fletcher continues to produce.

Let me come back to where I began. We can begin the new academic year with confidence and enthusiasm. The State of the Fletcher School is strong. Our mission is more relevant than ever.

I urge you to enjoy yourselves here. Learning is a serious business and this is a professional school. Most of you need to be concerned about what you do next, where you live, and where you work. But I believe you are also here to learn those things that will help you to live a full and active life – an international life.

Chris and I are delighted to begin our third full academic season at Fletcher. We look forward to seeing all of you frequently in the weeks and months to come.