Early life Born in
New York City, Wallerstein received his undergraduate degree at
Dartmouth College in 1971. In 1972, he followed with a
Master's degree in
public administration from the
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He received a second Master's (1976) and
PhD in
political science from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978. For the next five years, he worked as an assistant professor and program director at MIT. From 1983 to 1993, he worked at the
National Research Council, holding progressively more senior positions, eventually being appointed as the deputy executive officer of the
National Research Council. Also while at the National Research Council, Wallerstein directed a series of highly acclaimed studies on scientific communication, technology transfer and national security.
Tenure in the Defense Department From 1993 to 1998, he was appointed as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counterproliferation Policy and served simultaneously as the Senior Defense Representative for Trade Security Policy for the
Clinton Administration. While at the
Department of Defense, Wallerstein helped to found and co-chaired
NATO's Senior Defense Group on Proliferation, and he dealt in particular with nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons proliferation, as well as national security export controls. He received the
Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in January 1997 from Secretary of Defense William Perry, and he was presented with the Bronze Palm to that award in April 1998 by
Secretary of Defense William Cohen. During his time in
Washington, DC, he also served as an adjunct professor at the Program on Science, Technology and Policy at the
George Washington University, the
Walsh School of Foreign Service at
Georgetown University, and the
Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at
Johns Hopkins University. Wallerstein was named a Distinguished Research Professor at the
National Defense University in November 1997.
Career afterwards In 1998, Wallerstein joined the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as Vice President of the Program on Global Security and Sustainability. In this capacity, he directed the Foundation's international grant-making in 86 countries around the world. The Program made $85 million in grants each year focused on international peace and security, population and reproductive health, biodiversity and sustainable development, human rights and the impacts of globalization. In July 2003, Wallerstein was named the 8th dean of the
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at
Syracuse University. During his tenure, Wallerstein pushed for expanded internationalization of the school's programs and relationships with other elite schools of public affairs around the world; he secured an endowment for the School's Institute of Global Affairs in honor of the late Senator
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was twice a member of the Maxwell School faculty; he initiated new academic programs in security studies (which included the establishment of the
Institute for National Security and Counter-Terrorism), and he supported new programs in public diplomacy, and history and documentary filmmaking. He also raised a significant amount of new endowment funding for new Chairs and other programmatic support for the Maxwell School. Wallerstein began his tenure as the 7th President of Baruch College of the City University of New York on August 2, 2010. In this capacity, he successfully concluded the
Baruch Means Business fundraising campaign, reestablished the endowment of the Weissman School of Arts & Sciences, created the first outdoor public space (a plaza created by closing a city street) in the College's history and also built the first student center. He led an initiative to expand the College's graduate programs, including new Master's degree in International Affairs and in Arts Administration. In 2016, President Wallerstein successfully secured the largest gift ever donated to the College: a $30 million endowment gift to name Baruch's third school as the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Wallerstein was elected a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations in 1989 and a Fellow of the
National Academy of Public Administration (2006) and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (2015). He served from 2021 to 2025 as a Non-resident Senior Fellow on U.S. Foreign Policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Dr. Wallerstein has contributed to and/or written or co-written various books, articles, and other publications on national security and public policy, on scientific communication and export controls, and a number of other foreign policy topics. His most recent publication is a book based on his decade of leadership of Baruch College, entitled ''Public Higher Education That Works: One College's Path to Academic Success and Financial Stability''. and he has made many media appearances on
CNN,
Voice of America,
CBC,
Arirang, and more. ==References==