PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Former Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer has been appointed a visiting professor at Brown University’s Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies. His one-year term at the Watson Institute, a center for research and teaching on international affairs, continues through December 2009.

“Dr. Gusenbauer’s appointment is emblematic of the Institute’s strong commitment to engage leading public officials and policy practitioners in addressing contemporary global problems,” said David Kennedy, Brown’s vice president for international affairs and interim director of the Watson Institute. “Our advanced policy research on global security, development, and governance will be greatly enhanced by his expertise in such matters as European security policy, the international economy, and social democratic politics. We are privileged to have a man of his distinction in residence with us.”

Gusenbauer, who was chancellor from January 2007 to December 2008, has long been active in Austrian government and politics — as a member of Parliament, leader of the Social Democratic Party, chairman of the parliamentary committee for development cooperation, and senior researcher on economic policy, among other posts. He currently serves as a vice president of the Socialist International. Gusenbauer holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Vienna.

Gusenbauer will spend several weeks each semester on campus, meeting with students, giving lectures, participating in Watson Institute research projects, and pursuing his own research and writing. He joins a succession of policy leaders and diplomatic figures based at the Institute, currently including Ricardo Lagos, former president of Chile; former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee; Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and chief architect of the Dayton Peace Accords; and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil, who recently concluded his term as a University professor-at-large.