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Presented each year in recognition of notable public service by a political scientist.
 
Award Committee: Dale Rogers Marshall, Chair, Wheaton College; Timothy A. Byrnes, Colgate University; and Isaiah Wilson III, United States Military Academy, West Point
 
Recipient: Catherine McArdle Kelleher, University of Maryland, College Park
 
Citation: The 2009 Humphrey Award recognizes a highly respected and influential path-breaker in the areas of international security and American foreign policy who has served with distinction in both academia and government. This year’s award honors Catherine Kelleher, Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University and concurrently College Park Professor at the University of Maryland.

In government Professor Kelleher served as President Clinton’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia from 1996 to 1998.  Catherine also served as the Secretary of Defense’s representative in Europe and Defense Advisor to the US Ambassador to NATO in Brussels from 1994 to 1996.  She was a member of President Carter’s National Security Council staff in 1977 and 1978 and a Professor in the Military Strategy Department of the National War College from 1980 to 1982.

Professor Kelleher’s contributions to the improvement and advancement of political science have been equally significant. Catherine was the founder and first president of Women in International Security, an organization dedicated to developing career opportunities for women. She has served on advisory and research boards of institutes and non-governmental organizations in the United States and Germany, and served as a senior fellow of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution from 1990 to 1994, and Director of the Aspen Institute in Berlin from 1998 to 2001.  In 2005 she completed 15 years as Vice Chair of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academies of Sciences, and directed annual policy dialogues with China, Russia, and India. Throughout her career she has always been a generous mentor to the next generation of scholars.

Professor Kelleher received a BA and DLitt from Mt. Holyoke College and a PhD from MIT in 1967. She was an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan from 1973 to 1978 and a Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver from 1979 to 1983.

Her publications include more than 60 books and articles in English and German. She has taught and written extensively on conventional and nuclear arms control as well as on German, Russian, and European security issues. She has also been a leader in the design and implementation of programs to broaden education in security studies, both nationally and internationally, in universities and within the military.  As a prominent example, Professor Kelleher founded the Center for International Security Studies at the University of Maryland.

She has been decorated for her public service by both American and German governments including the highest civilian award from Germany’s Ministry of Defense, the Manfred Woerner Medal for outstanding services rendered to peace and freedom in Europe. Catherine has been active in APSA, ISA, the Council on Foreign Relations and many other organizations, and served on numerous editorial and advisory boards.

Professor Kelleher has been an innovative academic, a dedicated public servant, and at times a prescient commentator on contemporary events. An argument she made in a 1995 Brookings publication rings as true today as when she first offered it over a decade ago. She said that extending the European zone of peace and stability as far east as possible will require understanding of “the benefits of security cooperation over unilateral national action and of the fundamental interrelationship of economic prosperity, political stability, and military security.”