Messages and Remarks Session Overview

Director's Message

Robert Art
Director, Seminar XXI 
Christian A. Herter Professor of International Relations, Brandeis University, and Senior Associate, Security Studies Program, MIT

Seminar XXI began its first year of operation in September 1986; and with the banquet held on September 7, 2010, at the National Press Club, the program began its twenty-fifth year of operation.

Seminar XXI is an educational program located within MIT’s Center for International Studies. It was devised in 1984 by three far-sighted individuals — Mitzi Wertheim, currently a professor of practice at the Naval Postgraduate School ; Suzanne Berger, professor of political science at MIT; and Captain Jake W. Stewart, US Navy (Ret.). Its mandate then — and its continuing mission — is to provide current and future leaders of the US national security and foreign policymaking communities with the broad perspectives and analytical skills required to evaluate and formulate effective policy options for the United States.

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Founder's Message

Suzanne Berger
Raphael Dorman — Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science, MIT

Mitzi Wertheim
Navy Postgraduate School

Captain Jake W. Stewart
US Navy (Ret.)

From the beginning, this endeavor has been a labor of love for the three founders. The two Washington-based founders, Jake W. Stewart and Mitzi Wertheim, met by chance at a 1984 conference at the US Naval War College and found they shared a deep dissatisfaction with the mainstream worldview of the national security community of the 1970s and early 1980s. Jake was then working for the Chief of Naval Operations. Mitzi had sat through four years of Navy intelligence briefs, and found them lacking. Suzanne Berger was teaching social science paradigms for understanding politics and societal change. So the question was, How about setting up a seminar like this for bright, up-and-coming military officers?

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Remarks of Admiral Robert F. Willard, USN

Admiral Robert F. Willard, USN
Seminar XXI, Class of 1998–1999

September 12, 2005
National Press Club
Washington, D.C.

When I returned from command of the aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, I was a recently selected flag officer, still wearing Captain’s rank. The opportunity to apply for Seminar XXI came up, and a very close friend of mine and I both jumped at the chance and submitted our applications. He was on his way to J-5 on the Joint Staff, a policy job, and I was on my way to J-3 on the Joint Staff in an operations billet. My background up to that point had been entirely in operations, either flying or commanding ships.

I was not selected! So, I appealed and appealed, and I think I picked up a slot that someone couldn’t make. I was barely through the door and was thrilled to be part of all this. And like a wine, the Seminar has only improved with age.

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