Wallerstein was  elected a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1989 and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (2006) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2015).
In 1989, Wallerstein joined the Council on Foreign Relations. He was also recognized as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2006 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2015.