University of Southern California
School of International Relations

Ronald Steel

Professor
School of International Relations
Von KleinSmid Center, 304
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0043
(213) 740-0774
steel@usc.edu

 


higher resolution for media

Professor Steel's primary field of interest is American foreign policy: the conditions from which it emerges, the forces and attitudes that govern it, the powerful individuals and institutions who have given it direction, the responses that it has engendered both at home and abroad. This combines elements not only of history and political science, but of sociology, psychology, economics and political anthropology.

This interest is reflected in his books on the impact of American relations with other nations, and particularly with Europe, as well as those studies that deal with powerful personalities who have had a determinant influence on policies and events. Three of his books --- Pax Americana, The End of Alliance, and Temptations of a Superpower -- analyze the forces that have governed American foreign relations since World War II. Three other books -- Imperialists and Other Heroes, Walter Lippmann and the American Century, and In Love With Night: The American Romance with Robert Kennedy -- are biographical studies of key inviduals in American society and politics.

Awards

  • National Book Critics' Circle Award
  • Bancroft Prize in American History
  • American Book Award
  • Pulitzer Prize Finalist
  • Los Angeles Times Book Award
  • Washington Monthly Book Award
  • American Library Association Book Prize
  • Sigma Delta Chi Journalism Society Award
  • Sidney Hillman Book Prize

Books

  • In Love With Night: The American Romance vvith Robert Kennedv
    Simon and Schuster 2000; paperback, Touchstone 2001.
  • Temptations of a Superpower
    Harvard University Press 1995, also paperback 1996; Han Oul Press (Seoul) 1996. American Foreign Policy after Cold War
  • Walter Lippmann and the American Century
    Atlantic-Little, Brown 1980; also Vintage Books 1981, TBS/Britannica (Tokyo) 1982. An intellectual biography of the author and political commentator.
  • Imperialists and Other Heroes
    Random House 1971; also Vintage Books1972. Essays on American politics and foreign affairs.
  • Pax Americana
    Viking Press 1967; also Compass 1968, revised 1971, and Penguin (New York and London) 1977. Hamish Hamilton (London) 1968, Melzer (Darmstsdt) 1968, Sansoni (Florence) 1968, Buchet-Chastel (Paris) 1968, Papazisis (Athens) 1969, Hayakawa (Tokyo) 1968. An analysis of American foreign policy .
  • The End of Alliance; America and the Future of Europe
    • Viking Press 1964; also Delta Books 1965, Andre Deutsch (London) 1964, Kajima (Tokyo) 1965. A study of US- European relations in the Cold War.

Chapters in Books

  • "The American Imperium," in War and Democracy; A Comparative Study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War," M.R. Sharpe 2001.
  • "America After the Battle: The Cold War: Global Order, Democracy and Domestic Consent," in The International System After the Collapse of the East-West Order. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht and Boston, 1994.
  • "The End and the Beginning," in The End of Cold War: Its Meaning and Implications, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  • "Europe After the Superpowers," in Sea Changes: American Foreign Policy in a World Transformed. Council on Foreign Relations Press. 1990.
  • "NATO, the Superpowers, and the European Problem," in NATO After Forty Years. Scholarly Resources, 1990.
  • "The Superpowers in the Twilight of NATO," in NATO at 40: Confronting a Changing World, Lexington Books, 1989.
  • "Living With Walter Lippmann," in Extraordinary Lives: The Art and Craft of American Biography, American Heritage Books, 1986.
  • "The Abdication of Europe," in Atlantis Lost: US-European Relations After the Cold War, N.Y. University Press, 1976.

Periodicals

An abridged selection of major essays since 1982

  • "The Missionary," review-essay on Wilson and Paris peace conference NY Review of Books, Nov 20,2003.
  • "Fatal Attraction," review-essay of Master of the Senate, The Atlantic, July-Aug 2002
  • "Big Daddy," review-essay of the letters of Joseph Kennedy, New York Review of Books, Oct 18, 2001
  • "Partnership or Hegemony?" Il Molino, Bologna, 2000
  • Woodrow Wilson, "Mr. Fix-It," NY Review of Books, Oct 5, 2000.
  • Ronald Reagan, "Brackish Beads," The New Republic, Dec 6, 1999.
  • "Instead of NATO," NY Review of Books, Jan 15, 1998.
  • "Hijacked," The New Republic, July 13, 1998.
  • "A New Realism," World Policy Journal, Summer 1997.
  • "When Worlds Collide," NY Times, July 21, 1996.
  • "After Internationalism," World Policy Journal, Summer 1995.
  • "The End of Foreign Policy," Atlantic Monthly, March 1995.
  • "The Lure of Detachment," World Policy Journal, Fall 1994.
  • "George Schultz's Revenge," NY Review of Books, Sept 23, 1992.
  • "Mission Control," The New Republic, Jan 25, 1993.
  • "Forrestal: A Self-Made Man," NY Review of Books, Aug 13, 1992.
  • "Harry Truman of Sunnybrook Farm," The New Republic, Aug 10, 1992.
  • "The End and the Beginning," Diplomatic History, Spring 1992.
  • "Casualty of the Cold War," NY Review of Books, Sept 26, 1991.
  • "Pax Sovietica," The New Republic, Jan 21, 1991.
  • "The Smithsonian Institution," The New Republic, Jan 7 & 14, 1991.
  • "Rise of the European Superpower," The New Republic, July 2, 1990.
  • "Lyndon Johnson's Ambition," NY Times Book Review, March 11, 1990.
  • "NATO's Last Mission," Foreign Policy, Fall 1989.
  • "George Kennan: Guest of the Age," NY Review of Books, Aug 17, 1989.
  • "J.W. Fubright," NY Review of Books, June 29, 1989.
  • "The Strange Case of William Bullitt," NY Review of Books, Sep 25, 1988.
  • "The Man Who Was The War," NY Times Review of Books, Sep 25, 1988.
  • "Europe's Superpower Problem," SAIS Review, Summer 1988.
  • "Birth of an Empire," Reviews in American History, March 1988.
  • "Paul Nitze, Washington Post Magazine, Aug 28, 1988.
  • "The Origins of Alliances," The New Republic, March 28, 1987.
  • "Nixon," NY Times Book Review, April 26, 1987.
  • "Schultz's Way," NY Times Magazine, Jan 11, 1987.
  • "Thinking in Time," NY Review of Books, Nov 6, 1986.
  • "Wise Men of the Cold War," NY Times Book Review, Nov 2, 1986.
  • "Estrangement: America and the World," The New Republic, Oct 13, 1986.
  • "The Two Carters," Atlantic Monthly, June 1986.
  • "Safe for Democracy," Reviews in American History, Dec 1985.
  • "The Biographer as Detective," NY Times Book Review, July 21, 1985.
  • "Nixon and Vietnam," NY Review of Books, May 30, 1985.
  • "George Kennan: Statesman of Survival," Esquire, Jan 1985.
  • "Writing Biography," Michigan Quarterly Review, Feb 16, 1984.
  • "The Vanishing Campaign Biography," NY Times, Aug 5, 1984.
  • "Kissinger's Years of Upheaval," Political Science Quarterly, Winter 1982-83.
  • "John Foster Dulles," NY Review of Books, Oct 21, 1982.
  • "Ending the American Protectorate of Europe," Harper's, July 1982.

A number of essays, mostly from the New York Review of Books, were included in a collection published in 1971 as Imperialists and Other Heroes.

Advisory Positions

  • "The New Republic," contributing editor, 1980 - present.
  • "World Policy Journal," advisory committee.
  • "New Perspectives Quarterly," board of advisors.
  • Los Angeles Times book prize, juror 2003-04
  • PEN Essay Award juror, 1992.
  • National Book Award, jury chairman, 1990.
  • Freedom Forum Media Studies Center, associate.
  • German Marshall Fund of the US: consultant 1986-87.
  • Council on Foreign Relations, advisory groups.
  • Northwestern University, visiting committee, 1981-86.
  • Alicia Patterson Foundation, juror 1983.
  • Pulitzer Prize, jury chairman, 1982.

Education

  • Harvard University, M.A. political economy.
  • Sorbonne, Universite de Paris, cert.
  • Northwestern University, B.A. magna cum laude.

Field

U.S. Foreign Policy Analysis and Regional Studies-Europe