Walter R. Roberts (August 26, 1916 – June 29, 2014) was an American writer, lecturer, and former government official.
Life and career
Walter R Roberts was born in
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 ...
, and was educated at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
and
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
(M. Litt., Ph.D.).
He was a research assistant at The
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
(1940–1942) and joined the US Government (Coordinator of Information) in 1942. After eight years of service with the
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
, he was transferred to the Austrian Desk of the Department of State (1950).
In 1953, he was appointed Deputy Area Director for Europe in the newly created
U.S. Information Agency
The United States Information Agency (USIA), which operated from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to " public diplomacy". In 1999, prior to the reorganization of intelligence agencies by President George W. Bush, President Bill ...
(USIA). In 1955, he was a member of the American Delegation to the Austrian Treaty Talks that culminated in a State Treaty, signed in Vienna by the four occupying powers (U.S. Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union) on May 15, 1955.
In 1960, he was appointed Counselor for Public Affairs at the American 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 ...
,
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
. In 1966, he was assigned as Diplomat in Residence at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
in
Providence, R.I.
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
and in 1967 he was transferred to
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
to serve as Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. In 1969, he was appointed Deputy Associate Director of USIA and in 1971 was elevated to the Associate Director position, then the senior career post in USIA.
In 1973, his book ''Tito, Mihailović and the Allies, 1941–1945'' was published, described by Foreign Affairs as "the best book on the subject." In 1974, he received the
Distinguished Honor Award
The Distinguished Honor Award is an award of the United States Department of State. Similar versions of the same award exist for the former U.S. Information Agency, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and USAID. It is presented to groups or i ...
from USIA. He retired from the U.S. Government in 1974 to take the position of Director of Diplomatic Studies at
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
's
Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...
(CSIS). His first assignment there was to serve as executive director of a panel on International Information, Educational and Cultural Affairs (also called the Stanton Panel after its chairman, the then President of CBS, Dr.
Frank Stanton).
In 1975, he was called back into government to serve as executive director of the Board for International Broadcasting. (BIB, the government agency overseeing
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
and
Radio Liberty
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
. The BIB was dissolved and replaced in 1999 by the
Broadcasting Board of Governors
The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), formerly the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), is an independent agency of the United States government that broadcasts news and information. It describes its mission, "vital to US nation ...
. In 1985, he retired for the second time from the U.S. Government and was appointed diplomat-in-residence at The
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
where he taught a course on "Diplomacy in the Information Age" for ten years.
In 1991, President
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
appointed him to be a member of the
U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy
The United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (ACPD), created in 1948, is tasked by Congress with "appraising U.S. Government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics and to increase the understanding of ...
and President
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 ...
reappointed him in 1994. In 1993, he accepted an appointment as a member of the board of the
Salzburg Global Seminar
Salzburg Global Seminar is a non-profit organization that challenges current and future leaders to shape a better world. It convenes programs on health care, education, culture, finance, technology, public policy, media, human rights, corporate g ...
. In 2001, he co-founded (as a successor to the Public Diplomacy Foundation) The Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication and the Public Diplomacy Council. He was later an advisor to the (renamed)
Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication and was a member emeritus of the board of the Public Diplomacy Council.
In 2009, he received the Voice of America "Director's Special Recognition Award".
In 2014, his book "Tito, Mihailović and the Allies, 1941 – 1945" was republished in
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
. After his personal recollections about
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
were published by ''American Diplomacy'',
the Serbian newspaper
Politika
''Politika'' ( sr-Cyrl, Политика; ''Politics'') is a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade. Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans.
Publishing and owners ...
covered the story on its front page.
After his retirement from government, he wrote and spoke widely on foreign affairs subjects.
He died in 2014 in
Washington D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
Books
Tito, Mihailović and the Allies,1941–1945 Rutgers University Press, 1973; reprinted by Duke University Press, 1987
* Culture and Information: Two Foreign Policy Functions (with Terry L. Deibel), Sage Publications, 1976.
Articles
* "U.S. Experience in Evaluating Information Programs", Zeitschrift für Kulturaustausch, Stuttgart, 1975
* "The Global Information Revolution and the Communist World" (with Harold E. Engle), The Washington Quarterly, Spring, 1986
* "The Information Revolution: A Breakthrough in the East?" The World Today (The Royal Institute of International Affairs), June 1989. Published in German by the Europaische Rundschau in the Fall of 1989.
* "A New Status for Eastern Europe?", The World Today (The Royal Institute of International Affairs), October, 1989
* "Germany: The Gorbachev Memorandum", The World Today (The Royal Institute of International Affairs), October, 1990
* "Diplomacy in the Information Age", The World Today (The Royal Institute of International Affairs), July, 1991. Published in German by the Europaische Rundschau in the Fall of 1991.
* "The Life and Death of Integration in Yugoslavia", Mediterranean Quarterly, Spring, 1992
* "Torn Curtain" (with Harold E.Engle), Foreign Service Journal June, 1993
* "The Voices of America", World & I, November, 1993
* "Eberhard P. Deutsch: A Comment" Austrian Information (Washington, D.C.) Vol.49, No. 11, 1996
* "Austria as a Model", Foreign Policy, Fall, 1996
* "Follow the Austrian Model", Washington Quarterly, Winter, 1997
* "The Only Good Serb is a..." (With David Binder), Mediterranean Quarterly, Summer, 1998
* "Serbs as Victims", The Washington Post, April 10, 1999
* "Government Broadcasting", Virtual Diplomacy (Net diplomacy-Beyond Old Borders) U.S. Institute of Peace, August, 2002
* "Rebuilding Public Diplomacy" (with Barry Fulton), National Strategy Forum Review, Spring, 2004
* "The Evolution of Diplomacy" Mediterranean Quarterly, Summer, 2006
* "What is Public Diplomacy? Past Practices, Present Conduct, Possible Future", Mediterranean Quarterly, Fall, 2007
* "Rebooting America's Image Abroad", WhirledView, February 14, 2009
* "The Voice of America – Origins and Recollections", American Diplomacy, Oct.26, 2009
* "The Voice of America – Origins and Recollections II", American Diplomacy, Jan.11, 2011
* "The Israel Palestine Conflict: 1967 Lines with Mutually Agreed Swaps", American Diplomacy, Sept.21, 2011
* "The Day Austria Disappeared from the Map", American Diplomacy, February 2012
* "Years of Self-Inflicted Disasters – Austria Before Annexation in 1938", American Diplomacy, May 2012
* "Austria Redux – How Austria Reappeared on the Map of Europe", American Diplomacy, September 2013
* "Tito – Personal Reflections", American Diplomacy, February 2014
References
External links
*
ttp://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2011/0104/fsl/fsl_robertsvoa.html"The Voice of American: Origins and Recollections II" by Dr. Walter R. Roberts.br>
''The Evolution of Diplomacy'' by Dr. Walter R. Roberts.*
ttp://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2012/0106/ca/roberts_austria.html"The Day Austria Disappeared From the Map" by Dr. Walter R. Roberts.br>
of Self-Inflicted Disasters – Austria Before Annexation in 1938" by Dr. Walter R. Roberts.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Walter R.
1916 births
2014 deaths
American non-fiction writers
United States Department of State officials
American diplomats
Austrian emigrants to the United States
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Austrian expatriates in the United Kingdom