While principles of international affairs are always necessary to sound policy, they now seem especially so as the nation debates its role in the world, the endless complexities of the Middle East, and the utility of intervention.  Libya provides a contemporary case study of intervention and its consequences, and an opportunity to examine important principles of foreign policy.  Professor Kuperman has seriously studied and written about humanitarian intervention for over a decade.

He holds an A.B. in the Physical Sciences from Harvard University, an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Kuperman served in the U.S. Government as the Legislative Director for then-Congressman Charles Schumer, as Legislative Assistant to Speaker Thomas Foley, and as Chief of Staff of Congressman James Scheuer.  He also served as Senior Policy Analyst for the Nuclear Control Institute and a Fellow for the Office of Caribbean Affairs with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In academia, he has been coordinator of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute for Peace, before joining the faculty of the University of Texas.  

Among his publications have been the books The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Genocide in Rwanda and Gambling on Humanitarian Intervention: Moral Hazard, Rebellion and Civil War (co-edited), and numerous articles on intervention.

It is a great pleasure to welcome Professor Alan J. Kuperman to the Council.