Richard Felix Staar

Richard Felix Staar
Born(1923-01-10)January 10, 1923
Warsaw, Poland
DiedMarch 27, 2018(2018-03-27) (aged 95)
Portola Valley, California
CitizenshipUSA
Occupation(s)political scientist and historian
Academic work
Notable worksYearbook on International Communist Affairs

Richard Felix Staar (January 10, 1923 – March 27, 2018) was an American political scientist and historian. He held a position of senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.[1] His areas of specialization included Russia and East-Central Europe (former Soviet Union, post-Soviet states and the Eastern Bloc), military strategy, national security, arms control, and public diplomacy. He was an author of numerous books and articles.

Staar was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1923. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1948 and received a master's degree from Yale University in 1949. Following his master's degree, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency as an intelligence officer, holding that position until 1950. In 1950 and 1951 he worked as a library assistant at the University of Michigan. Also in 1951, he joined the U.S. Department of State as an intelligence research specialist, a post he held until 1954, when he completed a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Michigan.[2]

From 1954 to 1957, he served on the faculty of Harding College, moving to Arkansas State College for one year (1957–58). In 1958 he went to Munich, Germany, where he served for one year as chief of program analysis for Radio Free Europe. He returned to the United States in 1959 to become a member of the faculty of Emory University, where he remained until 1969 when he joined the Hoover Institution.[2] There, he became the editor in chief of the Yearbook on International Communist Affairs from 1969 until 1991.[3][4][5]

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the position of U.S. Ambassador to the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions (MBFR) negotiations in Vienna, Austria, a position he held until resigning in 1983. He has also been a visiting professor at the National War College, and was a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. In 1983, at the age of 60, he was awarded the presidential Legion of Merit.[1]

The Sarmatian Review, in a review of his book Born Under A Lucky Star: Reminiscences, said of him: "As associate director of the Hoover Institution for a critical twelve years, he helped make that organization serve the Soviet-slaying purpose for which its founder had endowed it."[6]

He died on March 27, 2018.[7][8]

  1. ^ a b "Richard F. Staar, Senior Fellow". Hoover Institution. August 20, 2010. Archived from the original on November 26, 2009. Retrieved March 9, 2012.
  2. ^ a b Ronald Reagan (September 10, 1981), Nomination of Richard F. Staar To Be United States Representative for Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions Negotiations, Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference WorldCat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Slavonic and East European Review 1971 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference APSR 1978 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ James R. Thompson. "Born Under A Lucky Star: Reminiscences". Sarmatian Review. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
  7. ^ Peters, Christina S. "Richard Felix Staar: Jan. 10, 1923-March 27, 2018". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  8. ^ Parker, Clifton B. "Richard F. Staar, Russian and Eastern European Scholar, Dies at 95". hoover.org. Hoover Institution. Retrieved 26 September 2018.