Maxwell School News and Commentary

"How do you inspire people? You do that by taking care of them," says William Smullen, director of the National Security Studies program. "By having them know that you are going to look out for them."

Regarding Rex Tillerson’s proposed replacement, Mike Pompeo, William Smullen, director of Maxwell's National Security Studies program, says he would need to restore the morale of "an agency that has been in despair for much of the administration."

"It’s important to realise the change process had a large amount of contention involved—both with the direction of travel under the global transition plan and how it was implemented from a change leadership point of view. This was both a politically sensitive and high emotion change process—therefore our assessment of it was too," says Tosca Bruno-van Vijfeijken, director of the Transnational NGO Initiative, in evaluation of Amnesty International's effectiveness of their change management efforts.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities, and local community engagement. The cohort of fellows hosted by the Maxwell School will be part of a larger group of 700 Mandela Washington Fellows hosted at 27 institutions across the United States this summer.

Maxwell's new online EMPA is structured to meet the demands of the highly experienced, ambitious students it attracts.

"It needs to be a national effort," says Bill Smullen, director of the national security studies program. "There are a lot of people in civilian clothes who have ill feelings toward Iraqi military and government. It is nationwide. That’s the way they need to think of it—a national effort in all places, all ways and all times."

"We need vigilance and action against the threat of cyber that transcends the public and private sectors. Cybersecurity controls are necessary but insufficient in both. Cyber threats need a credible strategy to be defeated," writes Bill Smullen, director of the National Security Studies program.