Robert Rakove

"'Getting the Worst of Both Worlds': John F. Kennedy and Decolonization"

Rescheduled
Friday, October 24, 2008
Noon
Mershon Center for International Security Studies
1501 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43201

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Robert Rakove has a M.A. in European History from Stanford University and will receive his Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Virginia in December 2008.

His project, "Befriending the Nonaligned: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Neutralist Powers," examines the efforts of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations to create lasting, constructive relations with leading states of the non-aligned world.  Rakove defines non-aligned countries as those who declared neutrality during the Cold War, including India, Indonesia, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Tanzania, and Yugoslavia. 

Rakove's project will explore how U.S. policies of interaction with non-aligned powers helped define relations between the United States and its allies, many of whom had tense relations with the new post-colonial states in Africa and Asia.

He will examine how U.S. foreign aid was used in forming international relationships during the 1960s. He will also investigate how policy makers in this era addressed issues of incompatible goals between the United States and new international acquaintances, while also dealing with regional rivalries within non-aligned states. 

From examining areas such as the India-Pakistan rivalry and the Bush administration's use of aid programs to gain support for the war in Iraq, Rakove's project engages contemporary policy makers who continue to reconcile relationships between the United States and emerging nations.

Robert Rakove
Postdoctoral Fellow Mershon Center
for International
Security Studies