Josef Korbel (; September 20, 1909 – July 18, 1977) was a Czech-American diplomat and
political scientist
Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...
United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan
The United Nations Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on 21 April 1948, concerns the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. After hearing arguments from both India and Pakistan, the Council increased the size of the UN Commission created by t ...
, and then as a professor of international politics at the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
, where he founded the
Josef Korbel School of International Studies
The Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver is a professional school of international affairs offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees. It is named in honor of the founding dean, Josef Korbel, father o ...
.
His daughter
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
, and he was the mentor of
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
's Secretary of State,
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Uni ...
. His granddaughter
Alice P. Albright
Alice Patterson Albright (born 1961) is an American government official who has served as the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation since 2022.
Early life and education
Albright is a daughter of former United States Secretary of State Ma ...
is the current CEO of the
Millennium Challenge Corporation
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the U.S. Congress in 2004. It is an independent agency separate from the State Department and USAID. It provides grants to countries that h ...
.
Background and career
Josef was born under the family name Körbel on September 20, 1909 to
Czech-Jewish
The history of the Jews in the Czech lands, which include the modern Czech Republic as well as Bohemia, Czech Silesia and Moravia, goes back many centuries. There is evidence that Jews have lived in Moravia and Bohemia since as early as the 10 ...
parents Arnost and Olga Körbel, both of whom were killed in the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. He married Anna Spiegelová on April 20, 1935. They had met in secondary school around 1928. Anna was born in 1910 to Alfred Spiegel and Ruzena Spiegelova, assimilated Czech Jews. Her parents gave her the common Czech nickname of Andula. Korbel called her Mandula, a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words
At the time of their daughter Madeleine's birth, Josef was serving as press-attaché at the Czechoslovak Embassy in
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
.
Though he served as a diplomat in the government of Czechoslovakia, Korbel's politics and Judaism forced him to flee with his wife and baby Madeleine after the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
invasion in 1939 and move to London. Korbel served as an advisor to
Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1945 to 1948. He also led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile 1939 to 1945 ...
, in the Czech government in exile. He gave speeches for the BBC's daily broadcasts to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. During their time in England the Korbels converted to Catholicism and dropped the umlaut from the family name, resulting in the second syllable of "Korbel" being stressed.
Korbel returned to
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
apartment expropriated from Karl Nebrich, a
Bohemian German
German Bohemians (german: Deutschböhmen und Deutschmährer, i.e. German Bohemians and German Moravians), later known as Sudeten Germans, were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part ...
Beneš decrees
The Beneš decrees, sk, Dekréty prezidenta republiky) and the Constitutional Decrees of the President of the Republic ( cz, Ústavní dekrety presidenta republiky, sk, Ústavné dekréty prezidenta republiky) were a series of laws drafted by t ...
. Korbel was appointed as the Czechoslovak ambassador to
, where he remained until the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia in February 1948. Around this time, he was named a delegate to the
United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan
The United Nations Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on 21 April 1948, concerns the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. After hearing arguments from both India and Pakistan, the Council increased the size of the UN Commission created by t ...
to mediate on the
Kashmir dispute
The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, with China playing a third-party role. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claimed ...
. He served as its chair, and subsequently wrote several articles and a book on the Kashmir problem.
Following the Communist Party's rise to power in 1948, in 1949 Korbel applied for political asylum in the United States stating that he would be arrested in
for his "faithful adherence to the ideals of democracy." He received asylum and also a grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
to teach
international politics
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the Scientific method, scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities betwe ...
at the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
. In 1964, with the benefaction of Ben Cherrington, Korbel established the Graduate School of International Studies and became its founding Dean.About us Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, retrieved May 15, 2016. One of his students was
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Uni ...
, the first woman appointed
National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils.
National sec ...
(2001) and the first African-American woman appointed Secretary of State (2005). Korbel's daughter Madeleine became the first female Secretary of State in 1997. Both of them have testified to his substantial influence on their careers in foreign policy and international relations.Michael Dobbs Josef Korbel's Enduring Foreign Policy Legacy ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' December 28, 2000.
After his death, the University of Denver established the Josef Korbel Humanitarian Award in 2000. Since then, 28 people have received it.
The Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver was named the
Josef Korbel School of International Studies
The Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver is a professional school of international affairs offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees. It is named in honor of the founding dean, Josef Korbel, father o ...
on May 28, 2008.
Academic work
* ''Tito's Communism'' (The Univ. of Denver Press, 1951). online * ''Danger in Kashmir'' (Princeton University Press, 1954). online * ''The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia, 1938–1948: The Failure of Co-existence'' (Oxford University Press, 1959), online
* ''Poland Between East and West: Soviet and German Diplomacy toward Poland, 1919–1933'' (Princeton University Press, 1963). online
* ''Detente in Europe: Real or Imaginary?'' (Princeton University Press, 1972). .
* ''Conflict, Compromise, and Conciliation: West German–Polish Normalization 1966–1976'' (with Louis Ortmayer, University of Denver, 1975).
* ''The Politics of Soviet Policy Formation: Khrushchev's Innovative Policies in Education and Agriculture'' (University of Denver, 1976).
* ''Twentieth-century Czechoslovakia : the meanings of its history' online
Danger in Kashmir
Norman Palmer notes in a review of Korbel's book ''Danger in Kashmir'' that Korbel covers the same ground as Michael Brecher. Yashina Tarr sees that Korbel has succeeded in providing an objective assessment of the United Nations' work and recommends it to readers. Birdwood labels the content on the United Nations Commission involvement "authoritative" due to Korbel's own membership in the Commission. He also observes that the huge number of footnotes and quotations testify to Korbel's vast research put into this "valuable contribution" on the Kashmir dispute. Werner Levi observes that Korbel tends to abstain from giving his own judgements and evaluations. Levi states that Korbel's book is a "comprehensive and balanced statement" of a contested topic.
Artwork ownership controversy
Philipp Harmer, an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n citizen, filed a lawsuit claiming that Josef Korbel's family is in inappropriate possession of artwork belonging to his great-grandfather, the German entrepreneur Karl Nebrich. Like most other ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia, Nebrich and his family were expelled from the country under the postwar "Beneš decrees", and left behind artwork and furniture in an apartment subsequently given to Korbel's family, before they also were forced to flee the country.Suzanne Smalley Germans lost their art, too. Family says Albright's father took paintings – May 17, 2000Wealthy Austrian Family Claims Albright’s Father Stole Paintings May 5, 1999