About the Organizer

The Kalaris Conference is organized by Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies (CSS). The CSS offers an expansive curriculum, in-depth research, and critical dialogue on security issues. The vision of the Center, created by then-Director Michael E. Brown in 2000, is to produce a new generation of analysts, policymakers, and scholars to think critically and act responsibly in the face of the 21st Century’s most pressing national and international security problems.

The academic pillar of the Center for Security Studies, the Security Studies Program (SSP), is the nation’s preeminent professional Master of Arts program devoted to security studies. When Stephen Gibert established the National Security Studies Program in 1977 as a “defense MBA,” the original classes met in the Pentagon and the degree was an M.A. in Government with a certificate in Security Studies. In 1984, the Master of Arts in Security Studies degree was established, and all classes had moved over to Georgetown University’s main campus by 1994.