Robert Endicott Osgood (1921–1986) was an expert on foreign and military policy, and the author of several significant texts on international relations. He taught at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

for twenty five years, and also served as an advisor to

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

during the latter's 1980 presidential campaign.

Biography

Osgood was born in

St Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. He attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he attained his bachelor's degree as well as his doctorate. He also served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. His teaching career began in 1956 when he became assistant professor of political science at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. In 1961 he became Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy in the

School of Advanced International Studies The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a graduate school of Johns Hopkins University based in Washington, D.C., United States, with campuses in Bologna, Italy, and Nanjing, China. It is consistently ranked one of the ...

at Johns Hopkins University. In 1969, he took a leave to serve for a year as a staff aide on the

U.S. National Security Council The United States National Security Council (NSC) is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for consideration of national security, military, and foreign policy matters. Based in the White House, it is part of the Exe ...

, headed by

Henry A. Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the preside ...

, in the Nixon Administration. Osgood directed the

Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research The Foreign Policy Institute (FPI) is an American research center based at The Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., United States. The Institute, r ...

at Johns Hopkins University from 1965 to 1973. From 1973 to 1979 he was dean of the School of Advanced International Studies. He served as an advisor during Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, and in 1983, Secretary of State

George P. Shultz George Pratt Shultz (; December 13, 1920February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held fou ...

named him to the Policy Planning Council. He died of a heart attack, just after Christmas, in 1986. He was living in Chevy Chase Md. at the time. He was survived by his wife, the former Gretchen Anderson, and a sister, Eleanor Chessman of Granville,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. The Osgood Center for International Relations is named for him.

Bibliography

* 1953 ''Ideals and Self-interest in America's Foreign Relations: Great Transformation of the Twentieth Century'' * 1957 ''Limited War: The Challenge to American Strategy'' * 1962 ''NATO: The Entangling Alliance'' * 1962 ''Nuclear Control in NATO'' * 1964 ''The Case for the MLF'' * 1967 ''Force, Order & Justice'' ASIN: B0006BQMIC * 1968 ''The Nature of Alliances'' * 1979 ''Limited War Revisited'' * 1986 ''Deterrence: The Western Approach''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osbood, Robert Harvard University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Presidential advisors People from St. Louis 1921 births 1986 deaths American military personnel of World War II University of Chicago faculty