September 07, 2007 Professor Hayward Alker, a leading academic in the field of international relations, died last month at the age of 69. Long associated with the Watson Institute, Alker made major contributions to concepts and methods of international relations. Author of several books, he himself will be the subject of a festschrift in his honor, in the form of a conference and book publication by colleagues and students.
“When I think of the intellectual legacy of Hayward Alker, a number of phrases come immediately to mind – enormous intellect, insatiable curiosity, exuberant enthusiasm for ideas, intellectual breadth, extraordinary generosity, and most of all, immense vitality,” said Watson Institute Professor and Former Director Thomas J. Biersteker, adding that “Hayward was my teacher, my thesis advisor, my mentor, my co-author, and my friend.”
Biersteker cited Alker’s wide-ranging contributions, including: “pioneering work on the North-South dynamics within the UN (a decade and a half before the North-South divide was discovered by the rest of the profession), work on computational linguistics, mathematical modeling in the social sciences, the analysis of complex systems, social theory, peace research, and path-breaking work on bringing humanistic traditions back into the study of international relations.”
His many books, monographs, book chapters, and journal articles included Rediscoveries and Reformations: Humanistic Methodologies for International Studies (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and the co-authored Journeys through Conflict: Narratives and Lessons (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001).
Among his last endeavors is an ongoing project on the Dialectics of World Orders, which he led with Biersteker in an attempt to analyze major international political debates about security, economy, community, and environment in the 20th century.
Alker had been an adjunct faculty member at the Watson Institute since 1996, and his wife, noted international relations scholar J. Ann Tickner, is also an adjunct faculty member. During the same period, he was holder of the John A. McCone Chair in International Relations in USC College. “He was an amazing, innovative scholar – one of the giants in his field,” said USC College Dean Howard Gillman.
Biersteker's tribute is available here.
The USC College remembrance is available here.
The Los Angeles Times obituary can be found here.
The Block Island Times obituary can be found here.