Lindsay France/University Photography

Fredrik Logevall

Fredrik Logevall, the John S. Knight Professor of International Studies and director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, has been appointed Cornell’s vice provost for international relations, effective July 1 for a five-year term.

A professor of history with expertise in U.S. foreign relations, Logevall will succeed Alice Pell, professor of animal science and former director of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, who has served as vice provost since 2008.

Logevall will remain director of the Einaudi Center. The Cornell Abroad program, formerly under the vice provost for international relations, will be overseen by the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, and the two offices will work closely together in the oversight of the program.

“Fred Logevall is a first-rate scholar of U.S. foreign relations, as well as a proven skilled leader in shaping the international dimensions of curriculum and interdisciplinary scholarship at the Einaudi Center,” said Provost Kent Fuchs. “His vision and insight will position Cornell as a leader in scholarship, pedagogy and problem-solving on a global scale. He will build on the solid foundation built by Alice Pell, whom we thank for her wisdom, leadership and service.”

Logevall serves on the universitywide committee charged with articulating the future of international studies and engagement at Cornell. A white paper <http://www.cornell.edu/president/docs/20120302-international-studies-en…; on the issue authored in March 2012 by President David Skorton <http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March12/SkortonIntl.html&gt; recognized Cornell’s long and distinguished history of scholarly work, education and outreach in international studies and international engagement. But it sounded a call to action for the university to remain globally relevant “at just the time when challenges such as global climate change, nuclear proliferation, infectious diseases, trade regulation and many others require international collaboration.”

Among the priorities Skorton outlined to keep Cornell engaged internationally: Hire new international studies faculty; provide more study, internship and work abroad opportunities for students to give at least half of all undergraduates international experience; increase financial support to international studies; coordinate administrative efforts around internationalization; and provide seed money for internationalization efforts.

Logevall said he was thrilled to be appointed vice provost, and he looks forward to working with all parts of the campus community to pursue the recommendations for Cornell’s global dimensions laid out in Skorton’s white paper and the committee report.

“It was a privilege to serve on the committee,” Logevall said. “The experience brought home to me just how much great international work we’re doing – and how much more we have to do. Only if we excel in international teaching, research and engagement can we prepare our students – and by extension the university as a whole – to flourish in this increasingly interdependent world.”

Logevall, who joined the Cornell faculty in 2004, is a native of Sweden. He earned a doctorate from Yale University in 1993 and previously taught at University of California, Santa Barbara, where he co-founded the Center for Cold War Studies. In 2007 Logevall was the Leverhulme Professor of History at the University of Nottingham and Mellon Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. His most recent book is “Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam” (Random House, 2012).