William R. Polk

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William Roe Polk (born March 7, 1929 in Fort Worth , Texas , † April 6, 2020 in Vence ) was an American historian , publicist and advisor on foreign policy issues. Polk was an expert on asymmetric warfare and advised the US government . Among other things, he was an advisor to President John F. Kennedy .

Life

Polk graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute . He graduated from Harvard University with a BA and a Ph.D. in history. from. He also studied at the University of Oxford , where he completed his studies with a BA and an MA . Polk also studied at the University of Baghdad , the University of Mexico , the University of Chile and the American University of Cairo .

At Harvard, he taught Middle Eastern history from 1955 to 1961 . During the reign of John F. Kennedy, Polk advised the United States Department of State on matters relating to the Middle East and North Africa . During the Cuban Missile Crisis he was part of the US government's crisis team. At that time, Polk was also Deputy Secretary General of the UN Aid Program for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East . After the end of Kennedy's administration, Polk resigned from his political offices and became Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of Chicago in 1965 .

In 1967, Polk became President of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs . In this function he organized the 20th Pugwash conference on the problem of the proliferation (proliferation or transfer) of nuclear weapons . At the time of the Six Day War , Polk was advising McGeorge Bundy , the personal representative of then US President Lyndon B. Johnson . Polk later served as chief of staff at the WP Carey Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations . He lectured at the Canadian Institute for Foreign Affairs and at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) , the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the then Soviet Academy of Sciences (today: Russian Academy of Sciences) . Polk was also the foreign policy advisor to Dennis Kucinich , who was a member of the Democrats until January 25, 2008 and was a candidate for the 2008 presidential election .

In his book Insurrection , William Polk examined and compared patterns of asymmetrical warfare in different phases of world history. He was a distant relative of James K. Polk , the eleventh President of the United States. Polk was married to Elisabeth von Oppenheimer and lived in the south of France , where he died of complications from leukemia in April 2020 at the age of 91 .

Publications

  • With David M. Stamler and Edmund Asfour: Backdrop to Tragedy: The Struggle for Palestine (1957). Beacon Press online edition
  • The Opening of South Lebanon, 1788-1840: A Study of the Impact of The West on the Middle East (1963). Harvard University Press
  • The United States and the Arab World (1965). Harvard University Press, 3rd edition 1975: ISBN 0-674-92718-4
  • Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East: The Nineteenth Century (1968). University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-67425-8
  • Passing Brave (1973). Alfred Knopf, ISBN 0-394-47893-2
  • The Elusive Peace: The Middle East in the Twentieth Century (1979). Palgrave McMillan, ISBN 0-312-24383-9
  • Neighbors and Strangers: The Fundamentals of Foreign Affairs (1997). University Of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-67329-4
  • Polk's Folly: An American Family History (2000). Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-49150-6 , Anchor paperback ISBN 0-385-49151-4
  • Understanding Iraq: The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the American Occupation (2005). HarperCollins hardcover: ISBN 0-06-076468-6 , paperback: ISBN 0-06-076469-4
  • The Birth of America: From Before Columbus to the Revolution (2006). HarperCollins hardcover: ISBN 0-06-075090-1
  • With George McGovern : Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now (2006). Simon & Schuster paperback: ISBN 1-4165-3456-3
  • Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq (2007). HarperCollins hardcover: ISBN 0-06-123619-5
    • German: Uprising: Resistance against foreign rule: from the American War of Independence to Iraq , translated by Ilse Utz, Hamburger Edition 2009, ISBN 3868542108 , also published in the series of the Federal Center for Political Education, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8389-0019-3
  • Understanding Iran: Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad (2009). Palgrave Macmillan hardcover: ISBN 978-0230616783

Web links

in German:

in English:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katharine Q. Seelye: William R. Polk, Historian and Middle East Envoy, Dies at 91. In: The New York Times. April 10, 2020, accessed on April 11, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Polk, William R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Polk, William; Polk, William Roe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian and political advisor
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Worth , Texas
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 2020
Place of death Vence