The University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House announced the return of Dr. Michael C. Horowitz, who has resumed his role as director of the prestigious institution and Richard Perry Professor after a two-year stint in the Biden Administration. Dr. Horowitz had been serving as the inaugural deputy assistant secretary of defense for force development and emerging capabilities at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), where he worked on critical global policy issues related to defense and technology.
Dr. Horowitz returns to Penn with a wealth of experience gained from his time leading the Emerging Capabilities Policy Office, a position he took on in 2022. His leadership in Washington, D.C., focused on harnessing cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) for national defense, while promoting responsible governance surrounding these innovations.
“It is a great pleasure to welcome Mike Horowitz back to Penn, and to thank him for his outstanding service at the U.S. Department of Defense,” said Penn Provost John L. Jackson, Jr. “His deep expertise in foreign policy, defense, and international relations has never been more important to our shared understanding of critical world events. His knowledge will be invaluable as he resumes the directorship of Perry World House.”
During his time at the Pentagon, Dr. Horowitz played an instrumental role in shaping defense strategies. His responsibilities spanned three main areas: aligning the Department of Defense’s capabilities and readiness, advancing emerging technologies, and furthering the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) security partnership, which has been key to Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines and the establishment of license-free defense trade between the three nations.
Reflecting on his time in Washington, Dr. Horowitz shared how his work at Penn informed several initiatives at the Department of Defense, including the international agreement on responsible military use of AI and autonomy. “The work we did at Perry World House directly impacted key initiatives that we designed and launched during my time at the Pentagon. It shaped how I thought about global issues and even some specific policies,” he noted.
One of Dr. Horowitz’s proudest accomplishments was the “Replicator initiative,” aimed at accelerating the fielding of autonomous systems across all domains for U.S. defense forces. Additionally, his leadership in AUKUS furthered international cooperation and advanced significant technological and defense strategies.
Now back at Penn, Dr. Horowitz is excited to engage with students and faculty once again, while bringing new insights from his time in the Biden Administration. “I am thrilled to be back on campus, where I will apply the policy knowledge and insights I gained from government service to Perry World House and the Penn community as a whole,” he said.
Perry World House, founded in 2016 under Dr. Horowitz’s leadership, serves as a global policy think tank, connecting Penn’s academic resources with international leaders and institutions to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Perry World House’s four key policy pillars—security, climate change, democracy, and human rights—remain at the forefront of its mission, and Dr. Horowitz’s return promises to further strengthen its influence on global policy debates.
As he resumes his role at Perry World House, Dr. Horowitz looks forward to mentoring the next generation of policy leaders, guiding Penn students toward careers in policymaking, and fostering new ideas to address today’s critical global challenges.
As part of his return, Perry World House will host its first major event of the fall semester, “The World Today,” on Thursday, September 12, 2024, from 12:15 pm to 1:15 pm ET. This hybrid event will examine the critical global events and shifts that have occurred over the past year and look ahead to emerging challenges. A panel of Penn faculty affiliated with Perry World House will discuss pressing issues, including democratic elections in key countries, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Sudan, rapid technological advancements in AI and autonomous systems, and the devastating impact of climate change—with 2024 on track to be the hottest summer in history.
The panelists will explore these issues through the lens of Perry World House’s four key themes—democracy, climate change, security, and human rights and global justice—setting the stage for the institution’s work in the coming academic year. The event is open to students, faculty, and the broader community, providing a platform for engaged discussions on global policy.
SPEAKERS
Sarah Banet-Weiser, the Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, is also its Lauren Berlant Professor of Communication. In addition, she is a research professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the founding director of the Center for Collaborative Communication at the Annenberg Schools (C3).
Her teaching and research interests include gender in the media, identity, citizenship, and cultural politics, consumer culture and popular media, race and the media, and intersectional feminism. Committed to intellectual and activist conversations that explore how global media politics are exercised, expressed, and perpetuated in different cultural contexts, she has authored or edited eight books, including Believability: Sexual Violence, Media, and the Politics of Doubt (Polity Press, 2023), the award-winning Authentic™: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture (NYU Press, 2012), Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny (Duke, 2018), and dozens of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and essays. In 2019-2020, she had a regular column on popular feminism in the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Michael C. Horowitz is director of Perry World House and Richard Perry Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Diffusion of Military Power: Causes and Consequences for International Politics and the co-author of Why Leaders Fight. He won the Karl Deutsch Award given by the International Studies Association for early career contributions to the fields of international relations and peace research. He has published in a wide array of peer-reviewed journals and popular outlets. His research interests include the intersection of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics with global politics, military innovation, the role of leaders in international politics, and geopolitical forecasting methodology. Professor Horowitz previously worked for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the Department of Defense. He is a senior fellow for defense technology and innovation at the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Horowitz received his PhD in government from Harvard University and his BA in political science from Emory University.
Michael Weisberg is deputy director of Perry World House, as well as Bess W. Heyman President’s Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. A renowned philosopher of science and senior negotiator at United Nations Climate Conferences, he is editor-in-chief of Biology and Philosophy, director of the Penn Laboratory for Understanding Science, and director of the Galápagos Education and Research Alliance. He is the author of Simulation and Similarity: Using Models to Understand the World and co-author of the landmark photographic study Galápagos: Life in Motion. Professor Weisberg also serves as senior adviser to the Maldivian Minister of Environment and advisor to the Maldivian Ambassador to the United Nations. He received a PhD and MA in Philosophy from Stanford University and a BS in Chemistry and BA in Philosophy with Highest Distinction from the University of California at San Diego.