The Center for International and Security Studies and Maryland (CISSM)—together with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends—celebrated its 30th Anniversary with a gala event on April 14, 2018 at the Riggs Alumni Center.
WATCH THE COMPLETE VIDEO OF THE EVENT
In opening the event, University of Maryland School of Public Policy Dean Robert Orr feted CISSM as “one of the most important institutions that not only we have, but that the world of international policy and security has.”
Indeed, during its 30 years of operation, CISSM has made substantive contributions to important policy and scholarly debates on a range of international security issues: nuclear weapons policy, space security, cyber policy, biosecurity, public understanding of foreign policy making, U.S.-Russian relations, and U.S.-Iranian relations—to name a few. It has also helped to educate future policy makers and scholars.
After introducing the audience to the breadth of CISSM’s past and ongoing work, CISSM Director Nancy Gallagher lead a discussion on nuclear threats, with alumni Joan Rohlfing, the chief operating officer and president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and longtime CISSM-collaborator Sergey Rogov, the director emeritus at the Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Gallagher later presided over brief presentations from alumni Kori Schake, deputy-director general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and Tim Gulden, policy research at the RAND Corporation. UMD Associate Provost and CISSM Senior Fellow Steve Fetter also participated. Each briefly presented what they thought would be a pressing international security issue during the next 30 years.
Past CISSM directors Catherine Kelleher (director from 1987-1991), I.M. “Mac” Destler (director from 1991-1999), John Steinbruner (director from 1999-2015) were honored throughout the evening by the speakers and hosts. Gallagher, Orr, and CISSM Research Associate Jonas Siegel also presented Kelleher and Destler with citations from Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.
