Belfer Professor of International Affairs Stephen M. Walt has been appointed academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, a post he will assume this summer.

“Stephen Walt is a first class scholar with very distinguished publications, and proven administrative ability from his previous experience at the University of Chicago,” said Dean of Kennedy School Joseph S. Nye, “I’m looking forward to working with him over the next several years of my deanship.”

Walt replaces Stanton Professor of the First Amendment Frederick Schauer, who was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow and plans to pursue research on decision making.

Schauer was very optimistic about the appointment, citing Walt’s broad academic interests and personality as great assets to the position.

“He’s not only broad-minded and open-minded, but he has the good humor and good sense not to take himself too seriously, which is quite important in a very busy, very demanding, and often quite frantic job,” Schauer said.

As academic dean, Walt hopes to make the Kennedy School an even more effective training ground for public leaders, as well as to reinforce the school’s traditions of rigorous public policy research and engagement with real world politics, he wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

Schauer, who filled the position for five years, said he was pleased to have such a qualified successor.

“He is extremely knowledgeable in many disciplines other than his own and well connected with all parts of the university, which, given the interdisciplinary nature of the school, is very important,” said Schauer.

Walt said he hoped to build on Schauer’s work when he takes the reins this summer.

“Fred Schauer has left big shoes to fill, but I’m excited by the prospect of working with Joe Nye and the entire Kennedy School community,” Walt wrote in an e-mail.

Walt, who is currently on sabbatical, has previously taught at the University of Chicago and Princeton University.

—Staff writer George B. Bradt can be reached at gbradt@fas.harvard.edu.