William R. Polk
Encyclopedia
William Roe Polk is a veteran foreign policy consultant, author, and relation of president James K. Polk
. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas
and grew up on a ranch in west Texas. He attended public school in Fort Worth and the New Mexico Military Institute. He studied in Latin America
and worked on a Rome
newspaper before matriculating and earning a BA and Ph.D from Harvard University
, and BA and MA from Oxford University. He also studied at the Universidad Nacional de Mexico, the Universidad Nacional de Chile, the University of Baghdad
and the American University of Cairo. Polk taught Middle Eastern history and politics at Harvard from 1955–61, and was then appointed by President Kennedy
to the State Department
's Policy Planning Council focusing on the Middle East and North Africa. While there he served as a member of the Cuban Missile Crisis
management team. He was also Deputy Commissioner-General of UNRWA
during this period. Polk resigned from the federal government to join the University of Chicago
as Professor of History in 1965, where he taught for ten years and established their Center for Middle Eastern Studies, serving as Founding Director. In 1967 became president of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, which hosted the 20th Pugwash Conference
on nuclear weapons problems, helped organize the “Table Ronde” meeting which laid groundwork for the European Union
, and contributed to planning the United Nations Environmental Program. During the 1967 Middle Eastern Six-Day War
he returned to Washington to write a draft peace treaty and to serve as an advisor to McGeorge Bundy
, who was President Johnson
’s personal representative during that crisis.
Polk is senior director of the W.P. Carey Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
. He lives and writes in southern France
and is married to Baroness Elisabeth von Oppenheimer. He has lectured at the Canadian Institute of International Relations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the Institute of World Economy and International Affairs of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, as well as over a hundred universities and colleges.
William Polk was also the foreign policy adviser for Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich
's presidential campaign.
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
and grew up on a ranch in west Texas. He attended public school in Fort Worth and the New Mexico Military Institute. He studied in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and worked on a Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
newspaper before matriculating and earning a BA and Ph.D from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and BA and MA from Oxford University. He also studied at the Universidad Nacional de Mexico, the Universidad Nacional de Chile, the University of Baghdad
University of Baghdad
The University of Baghdad is the largest university in Iraq and the second largest Arab university following the University of Cairo.- Nomenclature :Both University of Baghdad and Baghdad University are used interchangeably....
and the American University of Cairo. Polk taught Middle Eastern history and politics at Harvard from 1955–61, and was then appointed by President Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
to the State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
's Policy Planning Council focusing on the Middle East and North Africa. While there he served as a member of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
management team. He was also Deputy Commissioner-General of UNRWA
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a relief and human development agency, providing education, health care, social services and emergency aid to 5 million Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as in the West Bank and the Gaza...
during this period. Polk resigned from the federal government to join the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
as Professor of History in 1965, where he taught for ten years and established their Center for Middle Eastern Studies, serving as Founding Director. In 1967 became president of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, which hosted the 20th Pugwash Conference
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats...
on nuclear weapons problems, helped organize the “Table Ronde” meeting which laid groundwork for the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, and contributed to planning the United Nations Environmental Program. During the 1967 Middle Eastern Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
he returned to Washington to write a draft peace treaty and to serve as an advisor to McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge Bundy
McGeorge "Mac" Bundy was United States National Security Advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from 1961 through 1966, and president of the Ford Foundation from 1966 through 1979...
, who was President Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
’s personal representative during that crisis.
Polk is senior director of the W.P. Carey Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
. He lives and writes in southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and is married to Baroness Elisabeth von Oppenheimer. He has lectured at the Canadian Institute of International Relations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the Institute of World Economy and International Affairs of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, as well as over a hundred universities and colleges.
William Polk was also the foreign policy adviser for Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....
's presidential campaign.
Books
- Backdrop to Tragedy: The Struggle for Palestine (1957). coauthors William R. Polk, David M. Stamler, and Edmund Asfour. 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
- The Arab World. 4th edition 1980, hardcover: ISBN 0-674-04316-2, paperback: ISBN 0-674-04317-0
- The Arab World Today. 5th edition 1991, ISBN 0-674-04319-7
- 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 Macmillan, 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
- Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now (2006). coauthor George McGovernGeorge McGovernGeorge Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
, 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
- Understanding Iran: Everything You Need to Know, From Persia to the Islamic Republic, From Cyrus to Ahmadinejad (2009). Palgrave Macmillan hardcover: ISBN 978-0230616783
External links
- Homepage of William R. Polk, with articles.
- "Iraq: A New Leaf" by William R. Polk, from New York Review of Books February 18, 1999.
- Interview of Polk about his book Polk's Folly by Chicago Public Radio, April 27, 2000, Real Audio format.
- "A Visit to Iraq" The Calm Before a Second Desert Storm? by William R. Polk, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 2003, pages 24–26.
- "What is to Be Done in Iraq?" by William R. Polk April 24, 2004.
- "Thoughts on Torture" guest editorial in Informed Comment, May 26, 2004.
- "A Time for Leaving" by William R. Polk, American Conservative, January 17, 2005.
- "The Lessons of Iraq We Refuse to Learn" by William R. Polk History News Network, April 4, 2005.
- "Could a New Dictatorship Arise in Iraq?" interview of Polk by NPR April 28, 2005 (RealAudioRealAudioRealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fidelity formats for music. It can also be used as a streaming audio format, that is...
or WMAWindows Media AudioWindows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
audio formats). - "Concerning Public Ignorance" What America Needs to Do to Achieve Its Foreign Policy Goals, by William R. Polk History News Network, August 29, 2005.
- Interview of Polk on writing The Birth of America June 19, 2006.
- "The Way Out of War" A blueprint for leaving Iraq now November 8, 2006.