Now, more than ever, we need policies based on evidence. Our universities are replete with scholars conducting in-depth dispassionate research. Yet too often the research never reaches policy makers. How do we bridge this gap? Dame Louise Richardson explores the barriers between scholarship and policy makers and suggests ways to remove those barriers and improve the quality of public policy.

A conversation with Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, Senior Fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute.

With introductory remarks by James Steinberg, Dean of John Hopkins SAIS.

RSVP on Eventbrite to attend in person or watch our livestream on YouTube, no registration required.

About the Speakers

Dame Louise Richardson DBE

Dame Louise Richardson DBE is president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, the philanthropic foundation established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911. Previously, she served as vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford and of the University of St. Andrews, and as executive dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

A native of Ireland, she studied history in Trinity College Dublin before gaining her PhD at Harvard University, where she spent 20 years on the faculty of the Department of Government, teaching courses on international security and foreign policy. She currently sits on numerous advisory boards, while serving as a trustee of, among others, the Booker Prize Foundation and the Sutton Trust. Richardson is also a member of the selection committee of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. In 2023, the Irish government asked Richardson to serve as the independent chair of its Consultative Forum on International Security Policy.

A political scientist by training, Richardson is recognized internationally as an expert on terrorism and counterterrorism. Today considered a seminal work in the field, her groundbreaking study, What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat (2006), was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as an “overdue and essential primer on terrorism and how to tackle it … the book many have been waiting for.” Other publications include Democracy and Counterterrorism: Lessons from the Past (2007), The Roots of Terrorism (2006), and When Allies Differ: Anglo-American Relations during the Suez and Falklands Crises (1996). She has written numerous articles on international terrorism, British foreign and defense policy, security institutions, and international relations; lectured to public, professional, media, and education groups; and served on editorial boards for several journals and presses.

Richardson’s many awards have recognized the excellence of her teaching and scholarship, including the Centennial Medal bestowed on her in 2013 by Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for “having the vision to assess emerging threats, for transformative leadership, and for moving seamlessly between the roles of scholar and teacher.” She has been awarded ten honorary doctorates, including from the universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews in Scotland; Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland; the University of Notre Dame in the U.S.; the University of the West Indies; Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel; the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in Russia, and Université Grenoble Alpes in France. Richardson is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Academy of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom, as well as an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In June 2022, Richardson was appointed a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in recognition of her services to higher education.

Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli

Dr. Shirin Tahir-Kheli is a Senior Fellow and Founding Director of the South Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She was Research Professor of International Relations. In 2011, Tahir-Kheli was named by Newsweek as one of the "150 Women Who Shake the World." She specializes in South Asia, nuclear non-proliferation, United Nations and U.S. foreign policy, and women's empowerment.

From 2003 to 2005, she served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations at the National Security Council. She proposed and coordinated the building of the Children's Hospital for treatment of Cancer in Basra, Iraq from 2004 to 2009. From 2004 to 2006, she served as the key U.S. official in the formulation of U.S. policy toward United Nations reform. She oversaw the diplomatic effort to press for critical changes in the UN system from her position as Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council and later as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State for UN Reform.

Shirin Tahir-Kheli was appointed by Secretary Condoleezza Rice as her Senior Advisor for Women’s Empowerment in 2006. There, she established the first ever office focused on integrating Women's Empowerment into U.S. foreign policy. She set up and oversaw the work of the Women Leaders' Working Group, comprising 60 female heads of state, foreign ministers, political leaders, attorney generals and speakers of parliaments, focused on political participation, education, economic empowerment and justice. Tahir-Kheli spearheaded the State Department initiative for "Women's Justice" at the Department of State in 2008, through which judges from around the world worked on measures to alleviate the severity of violence against women and women's lack of access to justice, which continues.

Earlier, during her service in the United States government, Tahir-Kheli served as Head of the United States delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in 2001;, Alternate United States Representative to the United Nations for Special Political Affairs (1990–1993), a post that carries the rank of Ambassador, Member of the United States Presidential Commission on the Public Service (1992–1993), Director of Near East and South Asian Affairs (1986-1989) and Director of Political Military Affairs (1984–1986) at the National Security Council. She joined the Reagan Administration in 1982 as Member, Policy Planning Staff in the Office of the Secretary of State.

Ambassador Tahir-Kheli has dedicated her efforts to finding areas of agreement between India and Pakistan that could change their relationship to one of productive peace. Toward that end, she has been chair of the BALUSA Group comprising senior Indian, Pakistani, and U.S. participants that is geared to influencing policy toward cooperation.

She is the author and editor of several monographs, including: "Before the Age of Prejudice: A Muslim Woman’s National Security Work with Three American Presidents, A Memoir," (Macmillan, 2018); "Pakistan Today: The Case for U.S.-Pakistan Relations" (with Shahid Javed Burki, Foreign Policy Institute, 2017); "Manipulating Religion for Political Gain in Pakistan: Consequences for the U.S. and the Region" (Foreign Policy Institute, 2015); and "India, Pakistan and the United States: Breaking with the Past" (Council on Foreign Relations, 1997).

Tahir-Kheli has a B. A. From Ohio Wesleyan University and an M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dean James Steinberg

The Honorable James B. Steinberg is University Professor of Social Science, International Affairs and Law at Syracuse University, where he was Dean of the Maxwell School from July 2011 until June 2016. Prior to becoming Dean he served as Deputy Secretary of State, the principal deputy to Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, from 2009-2011. From 2005-2008, Steinberg was Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Steinberg was vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.

Mr. Steinberg was deputy national security advisor to President Clinton from 1996 to 2000. During that period he also served as the president’s personal representative to the 1998 and 1999 G-8 summits. Prior to becoming deputy national security advisor, Mr. Steinberg held positions as director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Analysis in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He is the recipient of the Joseph J. Kruzel Memorial Award, American Political Science Association (2014), the CIA Director’s Medal (2011) and the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award (2011).

 Steinberg’s most recent books are A Glass Half Full? Rebalance, Reassurance and Resolve and Strategic Reassurance and Resolve: US-China Relations in the 21st Century (both with Michael O’Hanlon). Recent book chapters include “Present at the Recreation: The Role of the State Department in Formulating and Implementing US Global Policy” in Nicholas Burns and Jonathan Price, eds., America’s National Security Architecture (Aspen Institute, 2016); “United States: Grappling with Rising Powers” in William I. Hitchcock, Melvyn P. Leffler and Jeffrey W. Legro, eds., Shaper Nations: Strategies for a Changing World (Harvard University Press, 2016) and “History, Policymaking, and the Balkans: Lessons Imported and Lessons Learned” in Hal Brands and Jeremi Suri, eds., The Power of the Past, History and Statecraft, (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). He has also authored Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power (Brookings 2008) with Kurt Campbell.

Mr. Steinberg received his A.B from Harvard College and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He is married to Sherburne Abbott, University Professor at Syracuse University. They have two children, Jenna and Emma Steinberg.