The Legacy of ISS
For 36 years, International Security Studies (ISS) was the preeminent research institution for advancing the field of security studies. From 1988 to 2024, it trained a vast number of exceptional scholars and practitioners and organized significant interdisciplinary convenings, particularly at the nexus of history and political science. Founded by the indomitable Paul Kennedy, Yale’s J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History and Global Affairs, ISS became legendary as an incubator and launching pad for careers, research agendas, and new university programs. For decades, ISS supported faculty and student research; awarded pre- and post-doctoral fellowships to visiting scholars; and organized a wide range of conferences, workshops, and other symposia, enriching the Yale community. ISS had a signal impact on the study of global and international affairs.
In 2000, ISS created the Grand Strategy Project, under the leadership of Professors John Lewis Gaddis and Paul Kennedy and the late Diplomat-in-Residence Charles Hill. Today, the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, Yale’s flagship year-long course in strategic studies, is a thriving, separately endowed program and much sought-after experience for undergraduate and graduate students. Many of the program’s alumni now occupy influential positions in government, industry, finance, and the non-profit arena. The program is currently co-directed by Professors Arne Westad and Michael Brenes.
In 2011, ISS-affiliated faculty played a critical role in securing the donation of Henry Kissinger’s papers to Yale and the establishment of the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy. The Johnson Center brings prominent statesmen and academics to campus as Kissinger Senior Fellows and Kissinger Visiting Scholars and hosts an annual conference and a variety of other events relating to international affairs, diplomacy, and statecraft. The Johnson Center is co-directed by Professors Arne Westad and Edward Wittenstein.
In 2016, Paul Kennedy established the Maritime and Naval History Project within ISS in response to a concerning neglect of these issues in the American academy. The near absence of research in maritime and naval history at top-tier U.S. research universities still stands in stark contrast to the urgency of maritime and naval affairs in contemporary geopolitics, and Kennedy’s initiative seeks to address this.
In 2019, following his engagement with the Johnson Center, former Google CEO and Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt made possible the creation of the Schmidt Program on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and National Power. The Schmidt Program has become the preeminent hub for scholars, practitioners, and students across Yale grappling with the complex global challenges associated with AI. Edward Wittenstein directs the Schmidt Program.
In addition to these signature programs, ISS also provided a home for many limited-duration projects over the years, including the Academic Center for United Nations Studies, the Red Army Secret Archives Project, and the 9/11 Response Public Lectures Series. ISS also played an important role in the return of the ROTC program to Yale and the establishment of a Marine Corps fellowship.
ISS closed down in August 2024. At the same moment, the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, the Johnson Center, and the Schmidt Program all became stand-alone units in the Jackson School of Global Affairs. Maritime and Naval Affairs now resides within the new Blue Center for Global Strategic Assessment within the Jackson School. The Blue Center has extensive resources to form new initiatives and programs on international affairs and will continue to support the often international-history-based scholarship that gravitated toward ISS. The existing post- and pre-doctoral programs in international security studies will continue with funding from the Brady-Johnson Program, the Johnson Center, and the Schmidt Program.
Along with the many hundreds of undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral associates, faculty, and fellows whose professional lives were in part shaped by ISS over nearly four decades, these enduring research programs attest to the powerful institutional and intellectual legacy of ISS.
Related Programs and Centers
The programs and centers that constituted International Security Studies—including the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy, the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy, and the Schmidt Program on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and National Power, are now standalone units of the Jackson School of Global Affairs.
For more information on the work of these programs and related events, please visit their respective websites: