Graham Allison Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Graham Allison
Allison in 2017

Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
In office June 1, 1995 – July 1, 2017
Succeeded by	Ash Carter
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and Plans
In office August 6, 1993 – March 15, 1994
President	Bill Clinton
Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government
In office June 1, 1977 – May 30, 1989
Preceded by	Don K. Price
Succeeded by	Robert D. Putnam

Personal details
Born	Graham Tillett Allison Jr. (1940-03-23) March 23, 1940 (age 85) Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
Children	See list Rebecca Allison Madison Allison Dashiell Allison Jacob Allison Henry C. Allison
Education	Harvard University (BA, PhD) Hertford College, Oxford (BA, MA)

Graham Tillett Allison Jr., born on March 23, 1940, is an American political scientist. He is a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

He is well-known for his ideas in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He studied how governments make important decisions, especially during big problems or crises. His book, Remaking Foreign Policy: The Organizational Connection, published in 1976, helped shape the foreign policy of the Carter administration.

Since the 1970s, Allison has also been a top expert on U.S. national security and defense. He has a special interest in nuclear weapons and how to prevent terrorism.

Early Life and School
Career Highlights
See also

Early Life and School

Graham Allison grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. He finished high school at Myers Park High School in 1958. He then went to Davidson College for two years.

After that, he moved to Harvard University and earned a bachelor's degree in 1962. He continued his studies at Oxford University in England as a Marshall Scholar. There, he earned two more degrees in philosophy, politics, and economics by 1964.

He returned to Harvard and completed his Ph.D. in political science in 1968. Famous diplomat Henry Kissinger was one of his teachers.

Career Highlights

Allison has spent his entire teaching career at Harvard. He became a full professor in 1972. This was partly because of his important book, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, published in 1971.

Understanding Decisions

In his book, Allison looked at how decisions are made in foreign policy. He introduced new ways to think about it. Instead of just seeing leaders as "rational actors" (meaning they always make the best logical choice), he suggested other ideas.

He proposed an "organizational process model" and a "bureaucratic politics model." These models explain that decisions are often shaped by how government groups work and by the different interests of people within the government. His book changed how people studied decision-making in politics.

Leading at Harvard

From 1977 to 1989, Allison was the dean of the Harvard Kennedy School. During his time as dean, the school grew a lot. Its size increased by 400%, and its funding grew by 700%.

Government Service

From 1993 to 1994, Allison worked for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy and Plans. In this role, he helped create strategies and policies for countries that used to be part of the Soviet Union.

President Bill Clinton gave Allison a special award, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. He received it for helping to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in countries like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

Allison also led the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs from 1995 until 2017. Ash Carter, who later became the U.S. Secretary of Defense, took over from him.

The Thucydides Trap

In 2012, Graham Allison came up with the idea of the Thucydides Trap. He wrote about it in an article for the Financial Times. He used this idea to talk about the possibility of a war between the United States and China.

Allison describes the Trap as a historical pattern. It happens "when one great power threatens to displace another, war is almost always the result." In 2017, he wrote a whole book about this idea called Destined for War.

The theory is based on an ancient Greek historian named Thucydides. Thucydides wrote about the Peloponnesian War. He said that the war became unavoidable because of the growing power of Athens and the fear this caused in Sparta.

Allison believes this "trap" has appeared in other historical events. These include the start of World War I and the War of the Spanish Succession. The idea suggests that when a rising power challenges an existing one, conflict can be very likely.

Other Contributions

Graham Allison is still a professor at Harvard. He has also been involved with many important groups. He was a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations.

In 1979, he received an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University in Sweden. In 2009, he won an award from the National Academy of Sciences. This award recognized his research on preventing nuclear war.

Defense Policy Work

Allison has been deeply involved in U.S. defense policy since the 1960s. He advised and consulted for the the Pentagon. He also worked as a consultant for the RAND Corporation.

He has been a member of the Secretary of Defense's Defense Policy Board since 1985. He was also a special advisor to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger for three years during President Ronald Reagan's second term.

Graham Allison facts for kids

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