Ronald Asmus

Ronald Asmus (diplomat, spook)
Born	June 29, 1957
Died	April 30, 2011 (Age 53)
Nationality	US
Alma mater	Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, University of Wisconsin
Member of	Council on Foreign Relations/Historical Members, German Marshall Fund
Expanded NATO eastwards  US/Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs  In office 1997 - 2000

Ronald Dietrich Asmus was a United States diplomat and political analyst. He, as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (1997–2000), was instrumental in the expansion of NATO to include former members of the Eastern bloc and acted as a leading policy designer in the U.S.–Europe relations.

Early Life

Asmus was born to a family of German immigrants who came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin after World War II. He grew up in Milwaukee and Mequon, Wisconsin graduating from Homestead High School.

Asmus held a PhD in European Studies, a master's degree in Soviet and East European studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in political science from the University of Wisconsin.

Career

Asmus made his name in a 1993 article published by Foreign Affairs that was among the first public calls for an expansion of NATO in the wake of the cold war. He and the article’s two other authors, all employees of the RAND Corporation, argued that the United States should embrace the inclusion in the alliance of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary — and potentially other countries.

He was U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs in the Clinton Administration from 1997 to 2000. He played an important role in the 1999 Washington summit of NATO, when Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary joined NATO.

In an obituary, Strobe Talbott, the former deputy secretary of state who oversaw Asmus’s work on NATO expansion stated “He was an intellectual progenitor, a godfather of an exceedingly important series of decisions and policies.”

He was responsible for strategic planning at the CIA front organization German Marshall Fund of the United States, and Executive Director of its Brussels-based Transatlantic Center. Under his leadership, The Atlantic Forum of Israel was founded in 2004 as a network-based policy organization working with prominent individuals and organizations from Israel, North America and Europe to advance Israel's relationship with NATO.

For his work, Asmus was decorated by the US Department of State and the governments of Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden.

Other Deep State Connections

He was also a senior analyst and fellow at Radio Free Europe, RAND and the Council on Foreign Relations. He was an advisor to the Truman National Security Project.

Writings

Asmus authored Opening NATO's Door: How the Alliance Remade Itself for a New Era (Columbia, 2002), about the push to open NATO to Eastern European countries, and A Little War that Shook the World (Palgrave Macmillan, January 2010), about the conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008. Being one of the most persistent advocates for the integration of Georgia into the European Union and NATO, Asmus viewed the conflict in terms of a larger Russia–West relations and argued that it was Georgian independence, and its Westward orientation, which angered Russia and set the groundwork for war.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Brussels Forum/2007			Belgium Brussels	Yearly discreet get-together of huge amount of transatlantic politicians, media and military and corporations, under the auspices of the CIA and NATO-close German Marshall Fund.
Brussels Forum/2010	26 March 2010	28 March 2010	Belgium Brussels	Yearly discreet get-together of huge amount of transatlantic politicians, media and military and corporations, under the auspices of the CIA and NATO-close German Marshall Fund.
Democracy & Security International Conference	5 June 2007	6 June 2007	Czech Republic Prague	The "Neoconservative International" that reports it was intested in "building a world of free and democratic states"
Munich Security Conference/2009	2009	2009	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 45th Munich Security Conference

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