Brzezinski, Zbigniew Kazimierz
[key], 1928–2017, American political scientist and public official,
b. Warsaw, Poland, grad. Harvard (Ph.D, 1953). The son of a diplomat, he was
raised in Canada and became (1958) a U.S. citizen. A professor of
international relations at Harvard (1953–60), Columbia
(1960–89), and Johns Hopkins (1989–2017), he was a Soviet
specialist and an influential voice regarding political affairs in the
Communist world. As President Carter's national security adviser
(1977–81), he advocated a hard line toward the USSR and was skeptical
of détente. In
1981 he resumed his academic career, writing extensively on U.S. strategic
relations, the collapse of Communism, and America's security challenges.
See his memoirs, Power and Principle (1983); Ideology and Power in
Soviet Politics (1962, repr., 1976), Between Two
Ages (1970, repr. 1982), The Grand Failure
(1989), The Grand Chessboard (1997), The Choice:
Global Domination or Global Leadership (2004), Second
Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower
(2007), and Strategic Power: America and the Crisis of Global
Power (2012); study by C. Gati, ed. (2013).
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