School of Public Policy, University of Calgary was designed as an interdisciplinary institution that would draw on expertise from academics across various departments and faculties at the university, including the Department of Economics, Department of Political Science, the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies and the University of Calgary Faculty of Law. Among the university’s faculty contributing to early work by The School of Public Policy were Dr. Ron Kneebone, Dr. Herb Emery, Dr. David Bercuson and Dr. Robert Mansell. The school was formally launched on May 13, 2009, at an opening dinner during which former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a keynote speech. The
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs of overall regional and bilateral policy issues, and oversees the bureaus for Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, the Near East, South and Central Asia, the Western Hemisphere, and International Organizations. The Under Secretary is advised by Assistant Secretaries of the geographic bureaus, who guide U.S. diplomatic missions within their regional jurisdiction. The political bureaus were first overseen in 1949 by a "Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs". Prior to the creation of the position of Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in August 1959, the Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs assisted the Secretary and