Robert Strausz-Hupé

Robert Strausz-Hupé was born early in the twentieth century in Vienna, Austria at the end of of the Hapsburg Empire. He was a first-hand witness to World War One and the birth of communism in Europe. He emigrated to America in 1923 where he was a foreign investment advisor to American financial institutions. He was able to perceive the Great Depression from the viewpoints of an American and a European.

In 1938, after Austrian government fell under Nazi control, Strausz-Hupé began to lecture across America warning about the impending conflict. One lecture at The University of Pennsylvania led to him being offered a position on its faculty, where for many years he bacame a respected Political Science Professor. He is generally credited with bringing the term geopolitics into common usage in the English language.,,

In 1955, Strausz-Hupé founded the FPRI, and began to take on a more activist political role in the 1960's. He was Barry Goldwater's foreign policy advisor in his unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1964. Subsequently, he was appointed as ambassador by three Republican presidents; U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka (1969 [|Nixon]), Belgium (1972-74  Nixon), Sweden (1974-76 [|Ford]), NATO (1976-77 Ford), and Turkey (1981-89 [|Reagan]).

After retiring as ambassador to Turkey in 1989, Strausz-Hupé returned to the FPRI and was given the title of Distinguished Diplomat-in-Residence and President Emeritus. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 98.