Former National Security Council Policymaker Rejoins Georgetown

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Professor Charles Kupchan (at right) with President Obama, former Press Secretary Josh Earnest, and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice at Schloss Herrenhausen in Germany, April 2016 (Photo credit: Pete Souza)



March 24, 2017by Aislinn McNiece
 One of the most salient features of an SFS education is access to renowned scholars alongside professors who actively work in government and public policy. What is more rare to find in a professor, however, is one who combines both academic scholarship and the active practice of international affairs. Professor Charles Kupchan is one of the select group that fits this bill.
Kupchan returns to the SFS this semester from former President Obama’s National Security Council (NSC), where he served as Special Assistant to the President and  Senior Director for European Affairs since 2014. This was his second stint in the NSC, as he previously worked on former President Clinton’s NSC before coming to Georgetown.
“When you’re in the White House, you’re shaping policy on matters of war and peace and you’re writing memos that end up on the desks of the National Security Adviser and the President. So you have this unbelievable ability to directly affect U.S. foreign policy and help shape the thinking of some of most influential people in the world – and that’s extremely exciting and sobering,” says Kupchan.
Kupchan served on the NSC during two quite different periods.  He explains that the world today is much more turbulent than it was in the 1990s, adding an additional degree of stress to working in the White House on national security. But Kupchan sees the ongoing importance of the transatlantic link as one of the greatest points of continuity between the Clinton and Obama administrations. As the Senior Director for European Affairs, he was charged with overseeing the European-American relationship while managing key challenges, including Russia’s aggression ...

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