Kenneth W. Thompson

Kenneth W. Thompson "is best known for his contributions to normative theory in international relations. Thompson received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1950) and taught there and at Northwestern University (1949–55). He resumed teaching at the University of Virginia in 1975. During the intervening years he rose to prominence in the world of institutional philanthropy, becoming Vice President for International Programs at the Rockefeller Foundation.

"He also served as director of higher education for development at the International Council for Educational Development (1974–76) before returning to the academic world. His honors include eight honorary degrees and endowed lectureships at Riverside Church in New York, Duke University, New York University, Rice University, American University, the University of Texas, and Geneva. Beginning in 1978 he headed the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, where he broadened his field of interest to include the American presidency. After he retired as director of the Center in 1998, he continued to head the Forum Program until 2004. The new wing of the Center is named in his honor. His editorship of the Center's series of publications on current political issues, and his service in organizing eight national commissions on topics ranging from presidential disability to the selection of federal judges, demonstrate his conviction that the academy cannot remain divorced from the public arena.

"Thompson's Principles and Problems of International Politics, a volume of readings co-edited with his mentor, Hans Joachim Morgenthau, provided the intellectual guidelines for his thinking through the succeeding four decades. Primary among these guidelines is a reliance on history. Thompson has seen himself as part of the influential tradition of political realism, the heir of the thought of Morgenthau and Reinhold Niebuhr, and the sustainer of the subsequent generation of scholars. He has organized and co-edited an innovative new edition of Politics Among Nations (seventh edition) released by McGraw Hill."

"Between 1955 and 1974 he worked on international education and health initiatives at the Rockefeller Foundation, where he became Vice President for International Programs.

"He also served as director of higher education for development at the International Council for Educational Development (1974-76). From 1978 to 1998 he headed the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, where he broadened his field of interest to include the American presidency.

"Kenneth Thompson is a former trustee of the Carnegie Council. He also served on the Board of Editors for the Council's publication Worldview."

Books

 * Lyn Graybill and Kenneth W. Thompson, eds., Africa's Second Wave of Freedom, Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 1998