BIO
Described as “an innovative and prolific scholar” by Foreign Policy and
named one of the magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers four years in a row, AnneMarie Slaughter turns big ideas and deep analysis into realistic strategies for a
networked world. A Princeton University foreign policy professor emerita, the
President of New America, and a former top official at the U.S. State Department,
Dr. Slaughter confronts a range of topics — from geopolitics and global
challenges to gender equality and leadership — with a unique and powerful voice.
As President and CEO of the nonprofit, nonpartisan civic enterprise, public policy
institute, and idea incubator New America, Slaughter leads a team of scientists,
technologists, and political and economic thinkers in Washington, DC and New
York City. Developing cutting-edge solutions for public problems, she aims to
innovate in such areas as national security, healthcare, technology policy, and
education.
From 2009-2011, Slaughter headed the U.S. State Department’s internal think
tank and advised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As the Director of Policy
Planning, the first female in the role, she oversaw a major review of America’s
diplomatic and development priorities. For her efforts, she received the
Department’s highest honor, the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award.
Now a foreign affairs columnist for Project Syndicate, Slaughter became one of
the country’s most talked about writers with “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,”
an in-depth and controversial look into the extreme work-life balance of today’s
professional women. It is the most read article in The Atlantic's history.
At Princeton, Slaughter was the Bert G. Kerstetter Professor of Politics and
International Affairs. The first female Dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson
School, she rebuilt the school's international relations faculty and programs.
The author and editor of six books, including A New World Order and The Idea
that is America, Slaughter has published over 100 scholarly articles in
international law and relations. Her next book on caregiving, work/life balance,
and the roles of men and women is scheduled for a Fall 2015 release.
Slaughter received her doctorate in International Relations from Oxford and her
law degree from Harvard before teaching at University of Chicago and Harvard
Law Schools. Formerly a consultant for Google, she is a member of the Aspen
Strategy Group and on the board of Abt Associates.
Anne-Marie Slaughter is currently the Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor
of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. Beginning in
September 2013, she assumed the presidency of New America, a public policy
institute and idea incubator based in Washington and New York, and will become
a professor emerita at Princeton.
Dr. Slaughter served as Director of Policy Planning for the United States
Department of State from 2009-2011, the first woman to hold that position. She
worked closely with the top leadership of the State Department and USAID as
the Executive Director of the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development
Review, which was released in December 2010 and provides a blueprint for
elevating development as a pillar of American foreign policy and leading through
civilian power. Upon leaving the State Department to return to Princeton at the
end of her public service leave, she received the Secretary’s Distinguished
Service Award for exceptional leadership and professional competence, the
highest honor conferred by the State Department. She also received a
Meritorious Honor Award from the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID) for her outstanding contribution to development policy, and a Joint
Civilian Service Commendation Award from the Supreme Allied Commander for
Europe.
From 2002-2009, Dr. Slaughter was the Dean of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson
School of Public and International Affairs, a position she held from 2002–2009.
She rebuilt the School's international relations faculty and programs, recruiting a
distinguished group of senior scholars. She expanded the School's faculty as a
whole by over 30%, adding scholars from history, sociology, engineering and the
natural sciences, and expanded the School's Masters in Public Policy Program to
include medical doctors, lawyers, and Ph.D. scientists. Dr. Slaughter was also
responsible for the creation of several research centers in international political
economy and national security, the joint Ph.D. program in Social Policy, the
Global Fellows program and the Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative.
Dr. Slaughter has written or edited six books, including A New World
Order (2004) and The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith with Our Values in a
Dangerous World (2007). Her latest book, tentatively tilted Real Equality, is
scheduled for a Spring 2015 release. She published over 100 scholarly articles in
international law and international relations, and helped pioneer an integrated
approach to both fields. She gave a set of Millennial Lectures at The Hague
Academy of International Law in 2000 and was the convener and academic cochair, with Professor John Ikenberry, of the Princeton Project on National
Security, a multi-year research project aimed at developing a new, bipartisan
national security strategy for the United States.
Now a foreign affairs columnist for Project Syndicate, Slaughter became one of
the country’s most talked about writers with “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,”
an in-depth and controversial look into the extreme work-life balance of today’s
professional women. It is the most read article in The Atlantic's history. She
provides frequent commentary for both mainstream and new media and curates
foreign policy news for over 65,000 followers on Twitter. She has served on
many boards, including the Council of Foreign Relations and the McDonald's
Corporation, and is currently on the board of New America and Abt Associates.
She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group and was a consultant to Google,
Inc. Foreign Policy magazine named her to their annual list of the Top 100 Global
Thinkers in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Prior to coming to Princeton, Dr. Slaughter was the J. Sinclair Armstrong
Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law and Director of the
International Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School from 1994-2002, and
a Professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government from 2001-2002.
Dr. Slaughter was raised in Charlottesville, Virginia by her American father and
Belgian mother. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton in 1980 where
she majored in the Woodrow Wilson School and received a certificate in
European cultural studies. She won the Daniel M. Sachs Memorial Scholarship,
one of Princeton's top honors, which provides for two years of study at Oxford
University. She received her M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees in international relations
from Oxford in 1982 and 1992, respectively, and her law degree from Harvard
Law School, cum laude, in 1985. She continued at Harvard after graduation as a
researcher for her academic mentor, the distinguished international lawyer
Abram Chayes. Before joining the Harvard faculty she taught at the University of
Chicago Law School. She is married to Professor Andrew Moravcsik; they have
two sons, Edward and Alexander.
SPEAKING TOPICS
GLOBAL HOT SPOTS AND BLIND SPOTS
Ukraine, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Israel. What’s happening in the world’s
hot spots and where are things headed? What are people missing?
Dr. Slaughter begins with a conventional geopolitical analysis of what’s at stake.
She then explains what we are not seeing — the many factors and trends, which
are critical in causing or resolving the crises, that are being ignored or distorted.
Providing an overarching framework — the chessboard and the web — Dr.
Slaughter describes the elements of a geopolitical analysis and the elements of a
networks and flows analysis focusing on people, trade, energy, climate, and
information technology. Political analysts tend to operate entirely on the
chessboard while economic analysts tend toward the web. Both frameworks are
necessary, she argues, when assessing global risks.
BIG IDEAS FOR A NEW AMERICA
Americans want each generation to live better than the last. To do that, we need
to invest in the future.
Since 1999, New America Foundation has taken a venture capital approach to
finding the best solutions for public problems. They provide cutting-edge thinking
and doing in education, economic policy, counter terrorism, and technology
policy. Their team of technologists, scientists, and political and economic thinkers
incubate ideas, scout talent, develop new technology, and actively solve
problems.
New America Foundation President and CEO Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter takes
you through several groundbreaking ideas and policies. The speech can be
customized, allowing the sponsor to select three, five, or seven ideas or areas of
policy that are of the most interest. They include: big ideas on the future of
education, health care, manufacturing, media, the Americas, leisure and
productivity, the Internet of Things, big data, the future of warfare, and political
reform. In this talk, Dr. Slaughter brings audiences up to speed and gives them a
look at what’s ahead.
RIGHTING THE BALANCE BETWEEN COMPETITION AND CARE
The work-family issue is neither a women's issue nor an issue limited to "work"
and "family." It's an issue of the fundamental balance between competition and
care: in our personal lives, our workplaces, and our society as a whole. Selfinterest and care for others are the two basic forces of human nature; we cannot
survive without both of them either as individuals or as a group. But American
society is badly out of balance, tilted far over toward the competition side of the
spectrum. The result is a care deficit: for our children, our elders, our
communities, ourselves. The impact of that deficit on our society over the
medium and long term is as profound as the economic deficit. Righting the
balance will: advance women at all levels of our society; provide men with many
more choices than they enjoy today; revitalize communities; invest in our human
capital for generations to come; and enhance creativity and productivity in the
economy. We must return to what Alexis de Tocqueville called our "habits of the
heart."
LEADING FROM THE CENTER
There are two predominant leadership styles vying for power in the world today.
Hierarchical organizations, like the US military, use an authoritative style, relying
on command and control, agenda-setting, and preference-shaping to structure
their members. Other organizations, such as Wikipedia, network members,
promoting their most effective tool, collaboration, to create an empowering work
environment. While these two models seem inherently different, most
organizations are usually compounds of the two.
What is the best way to lead? It’s a difficult question to answer. Throughout her
career, Anne-Marie Slaughter has worked for organizations that have a variety of
structures in place. At the US State Department, she observed bureaucrats
spending a great deal of time keeping things in order — a hierarchy that required
all of its components to run effectively. But as Dean of Princeton’s Woodrow
Wilson school, she encountered a horizontal system where tenured professors
would not take orders. Now, as the President of the New America Foundation, a
decentralized think tank and solutions platform, she mixes these tools and styles
to develop a new type of organization.
Discover what leadership style works best and when and how to effectively lead
from the center.
BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE GEOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE
In the north, political, demographic, and economic forces are driving us back to
the geopolitical landscape of the 1950s. China is turning inward. The United
States will once again become a central manufacturing platform for exports to
both Europe and Asia. Russia will be the U.S. and Europe's principal adversary
on global issues. Iran and Saudi Arabia will be the twin pillars of U.S. Middle East
policy. The growth and excitement will be more in the southern hemisphere:
South America, Africa, India, and the ASEAN countries. North-south economic
and human flows will be much stronger than in the 20th century, tying the
Americas, the Mediterranean community, and North and South Asia much closer
together. But south-south economic ties and political groupings, designed
explicitly to challenge traditional Western clubs, will start to re-write the rules of
the international game.
CHAOS OR CAPITALISM? TWO VIEWS OF THE NEW MIDDLE EAST
While conflict plagues the Middle East, the potential for economic stability and
growth could bring warring nations together. Diverse markets have the power to
create new partnerships, and that’s happening in the Middle East. Against the
backdrop of civil war and insurgency, Israel and Palestine’s business sectors
have begun working cooperatively, with tech startups throughout the West Bank
bridging the gap between sides.
In this talk, Anne-Marie Slaughter shows how long-term economic dependence
can develop relationships that the world thought impossible. She offers a new
way of looking at the Middle East, one that could help these struggling regions
take a turn towards prosperity.
THE STRATEGY OF CONNECTION: THE CHESSBOARD AND THE
WEB
For most of human history, and certainly during the 20th century, the modal
relationship between states in the international system was conflict or the threat
of conflict. Economist Thomas Schelling won a Nobel Prize for his 1961
masterwork The Strategy of Conflict, applying game theory to apparently zerosum conflictual relationships and showing how they could be converted to
positive-sum bargaining games. Those strategies still form the backbone of the
foreign policy portfolio when it comes to relationships between adversary states
such as the U.S. and Iran, North Korea and most of its Asian neighbors, or India
and Pakistan. In the second great age of globalization, however, the modal
relationship around the world is not conflict but connection: complex
interdependence weaving together economic, political, and social actors in a vast
web. This talk applies network theory to develop strategies of connection:
identifying the right nodes and the optimal means of connecting those nodes to
create networks designed for resilience, replication, innovation, collaboration,
and scale. Slaughter draws on examples from foreign policy, business, civic
activism, and education.
A LONGITUDINAL VIEW OF THE WORLD
For all the emphasis on the rise of Asia and the potential of both trans-Pacific
and trans-Atlantic trade agreements, an enormous amount of growth,
development, and economic integration will be taking place in vertical slices
around the world: Northeast and Southeast Asia; North America, Central America,
and South America; and Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa. Flows of money,
goods, people, energy, and culture are increasingly vertical in direction, reflecting
above all the direction of migration and resulting demographic change. To take
just one example, the U.S. exports 45% of its goods to Canada (19%), Mexico
(14%), and Central/South America (12%). As people knit continents together,
economic activity follows: remittances first, but then trade and growing
investment. Equally important, North and South Asia, Euro-Africa, and the
Americas all combine the following: growing demand from developing countries
with mature consumer goods export economies and natural resource exporters;
deepening regional savings pools to finance bond and equity markets; and a mix
of aging societies with pools of much younger and increasingly skilled labor.
THE RISE OF CIVIC ENTERPRISE
TESTIMONIALS
“Dr. Slaughter’s presentation 'Hot Spots and Blind Spots' delving into the
nuances and subtleties of geopolitical risk and analysis stood out as among the
best in Secular Forum history. She was able to entertain, inform, and persuade a
sophisticated audience. Simply put, she is dazzling.”
- PIMCO
“Anne-Marie Slaughter is the rare speaker who can light up a room. Her
participation definitely met and exceeded our definition of success.”
- Leadership Council on Legal Diversity
“Anne-Marie was a HUGE hit here. I've heard from several people about how her
comments affected them personally. Everyone appreciated what she had to say
and they are grateful that she came to speak.”
- University of South Carolina
“Anne-Marie Slaughter was great. Her public presentation was well attended by
students, which we love to see, and her pre and post talk events with faculty and
students went very well. It was a pleasure to have her here.”
- Dartmouth College
“Her speech and comments for the panel discussion, including the advantages
for Japan in a more energy-efficient and energy-independent world, was indeed
inspiring and persuasive.”
- Asahi Shimbun
“[Her] wise and cogent remarks and splendid presence helped to make this day a
very special one for Lafayette and for me personally. Her address stands in my
memory as the best I have heard in a long career of commencements.”
- Lafayette College