Ronald Steel
Research & Practice Areas
International history; U.S. Foreign policy analysis; Regional studies – Europe; Public opinion; 20th century U.S. history
Biography
Ronald Steel, author, lecturer and educator, is professor of international relations and of history at the University of Southern California. A former fellow of the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars in Washinton DC, the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, the American Academy in Berlin, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he is also the recipient of awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the French-American Foundation.
He has taught at several American universities, including Yale, Rutgers, Wellesley, Texas, Dartmouth, George Washington, UCLA, and Princeton, as well as at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. A graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard University, he has served in the US Army and as a diplomat in the Foreign Service of the United States.
His articles on public and international affairs have appeared in leading American and foreign publications, including The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, World Policy Journal, Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times. He is a contributing editor to The New Republic and is on the advisory boards of World Policy Journal, World Affairs, and New Perspectives Quearterly.
His books include WALTER LIPPMANN AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY, PAX AMERICANA, TEMPTATIONS OF A SUPERPOWER, THE END OF ALLIANCE; AMERICA AND THE FUTURE OF EUROPE, and IN LOVE WITH NIGHT; THE AMERICAN ROMANCE WITH ROBERT KENNEDY.
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Summary Statement of Research Interests
Professor Steel researches 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, and the responses that it has engendered both at home and abroad. In his studies, he combines elements not only of history and political science, but of sociology, psychology, economics and political anthropology.
Professor Steel’s 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.
Research Keywords
American foreign policy, Europe, World War II, Robert Kennedy, Walter Lippmann