Since last fall, our world has had to come to come to grips with dramatic challenges that many would have deemed a Hollywood fantasy a year ago. In this spring edition of the Bulletin, we examine some of these new concerns. While many of the issues raised by the terrorist attacks are not new to the Kennedy School, our focus on and commitment to resolving these problems have intensified.

Our cover story explores the complexities of nation building and
the role of the United States in such efforts around the globe. While Afghanistan is foremost on our minds right now, United Nations estimates identify more than 30 member countries as weak states — countries in such desperate straits that they too, like Afghanistan, are vulnerable to extremists and terrorists. How prepared the United States is to restore balance to these struggling nations is the focus of this article.

In this issue we also examine how our country’s status as a superpower can be used in even more powerful ways. As I explain in my book The Paradox of American Power: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go It Alone, through the use of “soft power,” which advances our culture, our values, and our policies, through attraction rather than coercion, the United States can enhance its influence in the world. While the United States is still and will continue to be a powerful force on the world stage, globalization has made it essential that our approach to foreign policy be multilateral and that it take into account the views of others. Such an approach is the most effective way to achieve results on such globally interrelated issues as climate change, international financial status, and the spread of infectious diseases.

We also continue our focus on one of the school’s central missions — inspiring and training our students for public leadership and government service. As has often been reported in these pages, this country will face a serious shortage of government workers in the next few years. More than 50 percent of federal workers and 70 percent of senior managers become eligible for retirement in the next four years. While September 11 raised the profile of
this country’s civil servants, it is still unclear what the long-term effects of this tragedy will be on replenishing our government workforce in the decades to come. Through our unique executive session program — the focus of another article in this issue — we are working in creative, new ways to help address the government’s human capital crisis.

The attacks last fall dealt some serious blows to our country but they also united us as never before. They certainly reinforced the Kennedy School’s mission of training high-caliber leaders and conducting top-notch research that can help our country address the new challenges it and our world now face.

Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Dean