Lise Howard

Professor of Government
Age: 44
Areas of research: International Relations, Comparative Politics, Conflict Resolution (peacekeeping, peace enforcement, civil wars and U.S. foreign policy)
Time at Georgetown: 6 years
Courses Taught: “International Security,” “Peacekeeping,” “International Relations,” “Peace Enforcement” 

What drew you to your field?
I wanted to end war. That was the idea.

What drew you to Georgetown specifically?
I’ve always respected Georgetown for its commitment to academic excellence, but I also love their values of outreach and social justice and educating the whole student. It’s the academic excellence first, and then the ethics of Georgetown — that you have a research university that’s also committed to Jesuit values.

What’s the greatest challenge you face in your job?
Not having enough time to read everything I want to.

How has the field of security studies developed since you began teaching?
It’s changed completely. When I first started learning about security, it was just about wars between states and civil wars. It was dominated by the Cold War and the aftermath of the Cold War, and it’s taken a while for security studies to reform itself given new security threats. Terrorism wasn’t even relevant when I was studying security; insurgency was relevant, but it wasn’t combined with terrorism as we see it today. International organized crime wasn’t what it is today. The internet didn’t even exist, so cyber crime wasn’t exactly a problem.

Can you describe a memorable encounter you’ve had since you began teaching?
I’ve had a lot of them. Probably the times when I’ve grown the most have been when students ask me questions that challenge me, that I haven’t thought about before. 

Do you notice any particular type of student that is drawn to your classes?
It’s changed over time. My classes used to have mainly the Justice and Peace students, but now I have a wider mix of security studies students. I also have increasingly more vets. I have two in my “Peacekeeping” seminar that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. More and more, I’ve been having people with experience.

What’s something you know now, that you wish you had known as an undergrad?
When I was an undergrad, I was categorically opposed to the use of force; I just though that it was never a way to solve conflicts. What I’ve realized over time is that sometimes, a judicious use of force can play a hand in war. That is also something that surprised me over my time here at Georgetown: recognizing that there are ways to use diplomacy with force to end violent conflicts. 

What would you most likely be doing if you weren’t in academia? Did you ever have a dream job?
I started out working at the U.N., and I wouldn’t be surprised if I someday ended up back in those circles. Now, though, this is my dream job. 

What do you most enjoy doing outside of work?
I spend an inordinate amount of time in Bikram yoga classes all over the world — that’s the nice things about that practice is that you can do it anywhere. I’m also with my children a lot — tennis lessons, tae kwon do matches, learning about fusing glass and all kinds of things I didn’t know about before.

Which international relations tradition do you identify with?
I respect realists, but I am no longer in one of the three traditions, I think. I moved towards liberalism in graduate school, and I am really interested in constructivism, but more and more, I am interested in psychological explanations. I don’t think we’ve researched group psychology and how people think about their status in the world enough. I don’t think we’ve spent enough time thinking about how human nature and how it drives international security and international relations in any of our main theoretical traditions.

Interview by Alexander Brown