We mourn the loss of Professor Joseph Nye who was a Visiting Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, and has been so much more, to the School and the University. From his years at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (New Jersey, 1958), Joe Nye was always a loyal friend to the University.

When Vice-Chancellor John Hood began thinking about public policy at Oxford back in 2006, Joe Nye was one of the first people to whom he turned. His advice and experience proved invaluable. From the time I first met Joe Nye (I was a young scholar at Harvard in 1992) he has been a constant source of wise advice, of ideas, and of knowledge about the world and about what people across the world are thinking. He visited the Blavatnik School of Government every year from its first year of existence, lecturing, mentoring, and always “finding out” how students and faculty were experiencing the School, and feeding it back to me as Dean.

All over the world students, governments, universities, and thinkers will be mourning the loss of Joe Nye. We will miss him but we will continue always to be inspired by him.

Professor Ngaire Woods
Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government