- William Thornton Rickert Fox
William Thornton Rickert Fox (1912-1988), generally known as W.T.R. Fox, was an American
foreign policy professor andinternational relations theorician at theColumbia University (1950-1980,emeritus 1980-1988). [http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/your_columbians/william_fox.html William T.R. Fox ] ] He is perhaps mostly known as the coiner of the termsuperpower in 1944. He wrote several books about the foreign policy of the United States of America and theUnited Kingdom (and its predecessor: theBritish Empire ). He was also a pioneer in establishing the systematic study of statecraft and war as an academic discipline.Academic career
He obtained his Ph.D at the
University of Chicago . He became in 1951 the first director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies (which was later renamed into the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies). [Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/iwps/] He was also an advisory board member of theJournal of International Affairs from 1952 until 1988 [ [http://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/prevadvisory_boards.shtml JIA Previous Advisory Board Members ] ] and the president of theInternational Studies Association (ISA) in 1972-1973. [http://www.isanet.org/handbook/hist.html]uperpower
Fox coined the word "superpower" in his 1944 book "Superpowers: the United States, Britain, and the Soviet union—their responsibility for peace" to identify a new category of power able to occupy the highest status in a world in which, as the war then raging demonstrated, states could challenge and fight each other on a global scale. According to him, there were (at that moment) three states that were superpowers: the
United States , theSoviet Union , and theBritish Empire .Notable students
*
Kenneth Waltz [ [http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people3/Waltz/waltz-con3.html Conversation with Kenneth N. Waltz, p. 3 of 7 ] ]Books and articles
Articles
*"Science, Technology and International Politics" in "International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 1. (Mar., 1968), pp. 1-15.
*""The Truth Shall Make You Free": One Student's Appreciation ofQuincy Wright " in "TheJournal of Conflict Resolution ", Vol. 14, No. 4. (Dec., 1970), pp. 449-452.
*"The Problems of War Termination: The Causes of Peace and Conditions of War" in the "Annals of theAmerican Academy of Political and Social Science ", Vol. 392, How Wars End. (Nov., 1970), pp. 1-13.Books
*"Superpowers: the United States, Britain, and the Soviet union—their responsibility for peace" (1944)
*"Theoretical Aspects of International Relations" (editor, 1959)
*"Nato and the range of American choice" (1967)
*"European Security and the Atlantic System" (editor, 1973)
*"A Continent Apart The United States and Canada in World Politics" (1985)References
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