Michael W. Doyle Named University Professor, Columbia’s Highest Academic Honor

Doyle, Former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Director of the Global Policy Initiative at Columbia, Attains the University's Top Faculty Rank

New York, April 9, 2015—Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger ’71 has named Columbia Law School Professor Michael W. Doyle a University Professor, Columbia’s top faculty rank and highest academic honor.

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“A University Professor inspires us to think beyond the confines of traditional fields of study and our daily lives,” Bollinger said in an email to the University community. “Michael’s ability to integrate distinct academic disciplines in novel yet meaningful ways has allowed him to elevate multiple scholarly fields while also serving the United Nations and society at large as a high-level adviser on issues of great urgency.”

A world-renowned expert on democracy, Doyle served from 2001 to 2003 as assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and special adviser for policy planning under Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He helped shape initiatives promoting human rights and reducing extreme poverty and later chaired the U.N. Democracy Fund, which promotes grassroots democratization around the world.

Doyle joined the Columbia faculty in 2003 as the Harold Brown Professor of U.S. Foreign and Security Policy, a three-fold appointment between the Law School, the School of International and Public Affairs, and the Department of Political Science. Co-director of Columbia Law School’s Center on Global Governance, his research interests include international relations theory, international law, and international history; civil wars and international peace-building; and the U.N. He also directs Columbia University’s Global Policy Initiative.
 
“I am deeply sensible of the honor that the professorship represents in a university composed of such outstanding scholars,” said Doyle. “I will regard it as a continuing encouragement to tackle global problems with interdisciplinary approaches in my classes and research.”
 
Doyle previously taught at Johns Hopkins, Princeton, and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. He sits on the board of directors for the International Peace Institute and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society.