Aaron Friedberg

Professor Aaron L. Friedberg of Princeton University was selected as the first Henry Alfred Kissinger Scholar, a "nine-month residential appointment" which began in September 2001.

The honor inaugurated the Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress that was "created through the generosity of friends of the former Secretary of State to honor him and emphasize the importance of foreign affairs, the Kissinger Chair program offers outstanding thinkers and practitioners a unique opportunity to pursue advanced research in the largest and most international collection of library materials in the world."

Friedberg was then described as a "superbly qualified scholar" who had produced "two incisive books on aspects of foreign relations." During his tenure as a Kissinger Scholar, Friedberg intended to research "the rise of Asia and its implications for America."

Dr. Friedberg served on the faculty of Princeton University since 1987 and was appointed professor of politics and international affairs in 1999. He has also served as Director of Princeton's Research Program in International Security at the Woodrow Wilson School. In 2001, he was Director of the Research Program in International Security, as well as Acting Director of the Center of International Studies at Princeton. Friedberg is a former fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and Harvard University's Center for International Affairs.

Friedberg was selected as the Kissinger Scholar by a selection committee that included the Hon. Lawrence S. Eagleburger; William J. McDonough, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Professor Walter A. McDougall of the University of Pennsylvania; and Dr. Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek International.

Friedberg was one of the signers of the Project for the New American Century documents Statement of Principles (June 3, 1997) and a letter on terrorism submitted to President George Walker Bush (September 20, 2001). His name has been connected to the Aspen Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute.


 * Member, Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion
 * Advisory Board, Center for Preventive Action

Quotes
Friedberg is cited in Benjamin Schwarz's "Why America Thinks It Has to Run the World" in The Atlantic Monthly, June 1996 issue:

"In a typical evaluation of East Asia's strategic future the foreign-policy expert Aaron Friedberg states darkly in the journal International Security,


 * In the long run, it is Asia [rather than Europe] that seems far more likely to be the cockpit of great power conflict. The half millennium during which Europe was the world's primary generator of war (as well as of wealth and knowledge) is coming to a close. But, for better and for worse, Europe's past could be Asia's future.

"Friedberg's assertion nicely illustrates the ambivalence with which the U.S. national-security community views East Asia's future. He both prophesies an exhilarating Pacific Century and warns the West that the East may once again be up to no good."

Related Sourcewatch

 * Project for the New American Century, PNAC, original signer