Brian Taylor Leads Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs

Brian Taylor, professor of political science, has been named director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, which is a research center endowed by the U.S. Congress to honor the legacy of its namesake and provide research and experiential learning opportunities to examine global challenges and interdependence. He succeeds founding director Margaret “Peg” Hermann, professor of political science and Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs, who will retire from Maxwell in January 2023. Hermann has led the center since it was the Global Affairs Institute and was among those on hand to celebrate its renaming in March 2005.

“In addition to being a top scholar and exemplary teacher, Professor Taylor has a deep familiarity with the Moynihan Institute,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “He is exceedingly well qualified to serve as its next leader—we’re excited to see him bring it into its next chapter.” The torch passing brings an opportunity, Van Slyke says, to consider, “what do successful global affairs institutes do well in the 21st century?” Working with Taylor, he hopes to further leverage the endowment to increase its visibility, influence and research capacity. In addition, he hopes to strengthen relationships within Maxwell and across the University because, he says, “Global affairs should reach every school and college on campus.”

Van Slyke believes the institute can benefit from added synergy with Maxwell’s Washington, D.C., programs and their think- tank home, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Nearly 10 years of partnership with CSIS has brought expanded programming and opportunity, including an executive master’s in international relations degree and top practitioners as teachers. Taylor hopes to build on these relationships and seek new ways to bring the expertise of Maxwell faculty into policy debates about pressing global issues.

A leading expert on Russian politics, Taylor has been cited in major outlets including Forbes, Newsweek, Fox and The Washington Post. He has penned three books, including, The Code of Putinism (Oxford University Press, 2018), and serves on the editorial board of Problems of Post-Communism and on the scientific board of The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies. He has received numerous honors, including selection as a Fulbright Scholar to study at European University at St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2011.

The Moynihan Institute includes seven regional centers that provide scholarly, linguistic and internship experiences focused on areas such as the Middle East, East Asia and Latin America. In 2005, it was named for Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the longtime New York senator who served as a U.S. ambassador to India and the United Nations, among other roles. He had a long relationship with the Maxwell School, beginning as an assistant professor in 1959 until he entered public service at the U.S. Department of Labor in 1961. Upon retiring from the Senate in 2001 after 24 years of service, Moynihan re-joined the Maxwell School as University Professor, a position he held until his death in 2003.