Bernard Schwartz Fellows

2012 Fellow | Call for Applications | Previous Fellows

The Bernard Schwartz Fellows Program seeks to contribute to a better understanding of policy challenges and opportunities related to the growing importance of Asia in the international political arena and global economy. The program selects highly qualified professionals to serve as resident Fellows at Asia Society’s headquarters in New York City for up to one year. During the course of their residencies, Fellows direct a major and original policy project, including writing a policy relevant publication for Asia Society.

Additionally, Asia Society relies on Fellows to provide in-house expertise via the media. Opportunities to present their work and/or participate in panel discussions, conferences, and other events at the Society’s Centers in the United States and Asia are also arranged. In these ways, Fellows play an important role in the Society's mission of promoting policy dialogue and public education on Asia.

The application process is highly competitive. Candidates are drawn internationally from the fields of government, academia, journalism, business, and civil society. Nominations are by invitation or by application. The requirements for Bernard Schwartz Fellows include a solid record of distinction, a soundly conceived project proposal with clear policy relevance, and a commitment to engaging the policy community and the broader public. The Program does not fund pre- or postdoctoral research or work toward a degree.

Purpose:
Asia Society’s Bernard Schwartz Resident Fellows Program seeks to help meet the large and growing need for nuanced dialogue on critical issues related to the growing importance of Asia in the international political arena and global economy. The program selects highly qualified and established professionals to serve as Resident Fellows at Asia Society’s headquarters in New York City for up to one year.

Responsibilities:
Bernard Schwartz Fellows engage in the following activities:

• Direct a major and original policy project, including writing a policy relevant publication for Asia Society, such as a report or other policy-related publication(s);
• Speak regularly to print and television media in the U.S. and Asia on issues in areas of expertise as well as on topics broader than expertise area;
• Contribute stories and writings regularly for major Asian or U.S. publications in the form of op-eds and other articles, as well as contribute writings regularly to the Asia Society website;
• Participate in public events at Asia Society in New York and Washington, D.C., with additional potential speaking opportunities at other Asia Society Centers domestically and globally;
• Provide advice to the organization in the conceptualization and organizing of ongoing projects and public programs and/or briefings, including planning, directions, and potential speakers, as appropriate; and
• Participate in activities related to Asia Society’s community of Fellows, including Associate Fellows, and network of partner institutes.

Requirements:
Bernard Schwartz Fellows are selected from among the world's most respected leaders/thinkers whose work focuses on Asia. The requirements for Bernard Schwartz Fellows include a solid record of distinction, a soundly conceived project proposal with clear policy relevance, and a commitment to engaging the policy community and the broader public in a better understanding of Asia. Candidates should be media-savvy and must be comfortable in speaking to print and television (including live) media. A minimum of 10 years of experience is required; this is a senior level position.

How to apply:
We are now accepting applications and nominations for the 2013 Bernard Schwartz Fellows program. Interested applicants who meet the profile and qualifications outlined above should send a cover letter, a detailed curriculum vitae, and project proposal to Johan Kharabi at globalpolicy@asiasociety.org with the subject line “2013 Bernard Schwartz Fellow Application.”

2012 Bernard Schwartz Fellow

Alexander Evans was a 2012 Bernard Schwartz Fellow at Asia Society. He is a former senior fellow at the Jackson Institute, Yale University, where he taught international affairs, and senior advisor to the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and then to Ambassador Marc Grossman, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (2009-2011). He has served as a British diplomat in Islamabad and New Delhi and was a member of the Policy Planning Staff in London.

Alexander was also the 2011 Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress. He was a Gwilym Gibbon Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford (2006-2009), a Yale World Fellow (2009) and an associate fellow at Chatham House (2002-2003). Before joining the diplomatic service, he was research director at Policy Exchange and director of studies at the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, both London-based think-tanks. He has contributed to Foreign Affairs, The Economist, Foreign Policy, and The Washington Quarterly, and has commented for CNN, NBC, BBC, NPR, Reuters, and Channel 4 News. In 2010 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

Asia Society Publication(s): The United States and South Asia after Afghanistan

Previous Fellows

Philip Shishkin was a 2011 Bernard Schwartz Fellow at Asia Society. Philip spent 10 years as a staff reporter of The Wall Street Journal, most of it as a foreign correspondent, running their Baghdad bureau through the height of Iraq's sectarian war in 2006 and 2007. His reporting on tensions between secular and religious forces in Turkey earned him a 2008 Wilbur award from the Religion Communicators Council. His articles on the Balkans and the Ukraine were chosen by the German Marshall Fund of the United States for its 2006 award for outstanding coverage of Europe by a journalist under 35.

Philip has written extensively about Central Asia, chronicling the turbulent nation-building process in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as the two countries' acquired renewed strategic importance for the US, Russia, and China. In his reporting from Afghanistan, Philip has detailed the mechanics of heroin production and smuggling, a robust industry that is among the West's most intractable challenges. His recent writing on Central Asia, backed by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, appeared in Foreign Policy magazine.

At the Asia Society, his work focused on the turbulent dynamics of Central Asia, where years of dictatorial rule, ethnic tensions, and bewildering corruption pose significant policy riddles for the US and other regional powers. Philip's research interests include democracy promotion, human rights, and the conduct of Western companies in the resource-rich region.

Asia Society Publication(s): Central Asia's Crisis of Governance

Other publications and recent appearances on AsiaSociety.org

Other publications:

World Affairs Journal
Foreign Policy
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Dr. Hassan Abbas was a 2010 Bernard Schwartz Fellow and is currently a Senior Advisor at Asia Society’s New York headquarters. Hassan joined Columbia University's South Asia Institute as Quaid-i-Azam Chair Professor in January 2010 and is also a Senior Advisor at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, after having been a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center from 2005 to August 2009. He is also a non-resident Fellow at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), Michigan, and an Associate of the Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU), University of Bradford, in the United Kingdom. He received his Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and an LL.M. in International Law from Nottingham University, UK, where he was a Britannia Chevening Scholar (1999). Hassan also remained a visiting fellow at the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School (2002–2003) and as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation (2003–2004).

His research interests are nuclear proliferation, religious extremism in South and Central Asia, and relations between Muslims and the West.

Hassan is a former Pakistani government official who served in the administrations of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (1995–1996) and President Pervez Musharraf (1999–2000). His latest book, Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America's War on Terror (M.E. Sharpe) has been on bestseller lists in India and Pakistan and was widely reviewed internationally, including by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Far Eastern Economic Review, The Hindu, and Dawn. He has also appeared as an analyst on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, Al-jazeera, and PBS, and as a political commentator on VOA and BBC. His forthcoming book is Letters to Young Muslims on Science, Sovereignty and Sufis. Another book manuscript he is working on deals with Pakistan's nuclear program and its genesis. He runs WATANDOST, which is a blog on Pakistan and its neighbors' related affairs.

At the Asia Society, his work focuses on US-Central and -South Asia relations, especially in the context of political dynamics in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His research and writings also look at India-Pakistan relations and the potential US role in facilitating peaceful and friendly relations between the two South Asian rivals.

Asia Society Publication(s): Pakistan 2020: A Vision for Building a Better Future, Stabilizing Pakistan through Police Reform

Other publications and recent appearances on AsiaSociety.org
WATANDOST: Inside News About Pakistan and its Neighborhood
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs page on Hassan Abbas

Dr. Verónica Boix Mansilla is a Bernard Schwartz Associate Fellow in Asia Society's Education department, focusing on global competency and the educational demands of our changing world.

She has an Ed.D. in Human Development and Psychology and a Master's in Education from Harvard University, and is the Principal Investigator of the Interdisciplinary Studies Project at Project Zero. Her research and publications focus on how students, teachers, and experts develop expertise in disciplines such as history, biology, and the arts, and how they integrate such perspectives to examine interdisciplinary problems of global significance (e.g., globalization, genocide, global health, climate change, or bioethics). Her research brings together theories and methods in cognitive psychology, epistemology, pedagogy, and sociology of knowledge.

Verónica has defined "global consciousness" and argued for its significance as an aim for contemporary education. She is examining this construct empirically in collaboration with the International Baccalaureate. As a member of the Asia Society-Council of Chief State School Officers working group, she has also contributed to the definition of global competency.

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