Michael Doyle came to Columbia with a joint-appointment to the Law School and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). As the Harold Brown Professor of United
States Foreign and Security Policy, Prof. Doyle brought a strong reputation as a writer and thinker on the philosophical underpinnings of liberalism and other philosophies of international governance.
An interest in international affairs came naturally to Prof. Doyle, whose parents met in the counter intelligence corps during World War II and whose father served in embassies in Europe. Born in Hawaii, Prof. Doyle grew up in France and Switzerland. Before coming to Columbia, he was a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton, though for two years he was on leave to work as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special advisor.
Although he was trained as a political scientist, Prof. Doyle comes with scholarly experience in the legal field. A former teaching assistant of the late Leo Gross - an eminent professor of international law at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy - Prof. Doyle says that understanding international law and policy is more important than it has been in several generations, if not ever.
"During the Cold War, the international system was divided into two hostile blocs, with very little cooperation between them," he says. "Today, we're entering a world that is vastly more complicated and confusing, and in some cases full of conflict, but the room for multilateral agreement is much larger."
As a special advisor to Mr. Annan, Prof. Doyle had responsibility in four areas: strategic planning; the Global Compact (the UN's outreach effort to the global corporate sector); relations with the U.S. government; and relations with the global academic community. He also handled special projects, most importantly the negotiation of the Millennium Development Goals and the formulation of UN policy on issues of international migration.
Prof. Doyle says that his service to the United Nations was the greatest privilege that someone interested in public policy and law could have, though he was glad to return to teaching.
"I'm a professor and the opportunity to get the kind of intellectual stimulation that Columbia offers is great," he says. As to the opportunity to work at both Columbia Law School and SIPA, he adds that the combination of two eminent faculties some 50 yards from each other was an incredibly strong draw. "It's a wonderful opportunity to explore, teach, and do research."
