Josef Korbel
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Josef Korbel (; September 20, 1909 – July 18, 1977) was a Czech-American diplomat and
political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
. During his public career, he served as
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
's ambassador to
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
and was the country's representative to the
United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan United Nations Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on 21 April 1948, concerns the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. After hearing arguments from both India and Pakistan, the Council increased the size of the UN Commission created by the ...
, serving as its chair. After settling down in the United States, Korbel became a professor of international politics at the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...
, where he founded the Graduate School of International Studies, which was later named after him, and served as its first dean. His daughter,
Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Körbelová, later Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political science, political scientist who served as the 64th United States Secretary of State, United S ...
, served as Secretary of State under President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
, and he was the mentor of President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
's Secretary of State,
Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza "Condi" Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist serving since 2020 as the 8th director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served ...
. His granddaughter, Alice P. Albright, is serving as CEO of the
Millennium Challenge Corporation The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the U.S. Congress in 2004. It is an independent agency separate from the State Department and USAID. It provides grants to countries tha ...
under President
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
.


Background and career

Josef was born under the family name Körbel on September 20, 1909 to Czech parents Arnost and Olga Körbel, both of whom were killed in
the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. He married Anna Spiegelová on April 20, 1935. They had met in secondary school around 1928. Anna was born in 1910 to Alfred Spiegel and Růžena Spiegelová, assimilated Czech Jews. Her parents gave her the common Czech nickname of Andula. Korbel called her Mandula, a
portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.
of "Má Andula" (Czech for "My Andula"), while Anna called him Jozka. At the time of their daughter Madeleine's birth, Josef was serving as press-attaché at the Czechoslovak Embassy in
Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
. Though he served as a diplomat in the government of Czechoslovakia, Korbel's politics and Judaism forced him to flee with his wife and baby Madeleine after the
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
invasion in 1939 and move to London. Korbel served as an advisor to
Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1939 to 1948. During the first six years of his second stint, he led the Czec ...
, in the Czech government in exile. He gave speeches for the BBC's daily broadcasts to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. During their time in England the Korbels converted to Catholicism and dropped the umlaut from the family name, resulting in the second syllable of "Korbel" being stressed. Korbel returned to
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
after the war, receiving a luxurious
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
apartment expropriated from Karl Nebrich, a Bohemian German industrialist expelled under the
Beneš decrees The Beneš decrees were a series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II. They were issued by President Edvard Beneš fr ...
. Korbel was appointed as the Czechoslovak ambassador to
Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...
, where he remained until the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia in February 1948. Around this time, he was named a delegate to the
United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan United Nations Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on 21 April 1948, concerns the resolution of the Kashmir conflict. After hearing arguments from both India and Pakistan, the Council increased the size of the UN Commission created by the ...
to mediate on the Kashmir dispute. He served as its chair, and subsequently wrote several articles and a book on the Kashmir problem. Following the Communist Party's rise to power in 1948, in 1949 Korbel applied for political asylum in the United States stating that he would be arrested in
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
for his "faithful adherence to the ideals of democracy." He received asylum and also a grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
to teach
international politics International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
at the
University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...
. In 1964, with the benefaction of Ben Cherrington, Korbel established the Graduate School of International Studies and became its founding Dean.About us
Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, retrieved May 15, 2016.
One of his students was
Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza "Condi" Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist serving since 2020 as the 8th director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served ...
, the first woman appointed National Security Advisor (2001) and the first African-American woman appointed Secretary of State (2005). Korbel's daughter Madeleine became the first female Secretary of State in 1997. Both of them have testified to his substantial influence on their careers in foreign policy and international relations.Michael Dobbs
Josef Korbel's Enduring Foreign Policy Legacy
''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' December 28, 2000.
Korbel died in 1977. After his death, the University of Denver established the Josef Korbel Humanitarian Award in 2000. Since then, 28 people have received it. The Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver was named the
Josef Korbel School of International Studies The Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver is a professional school of international affairs offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees. It is named in honor of the founding dean, Josef Korbel, father ...
on May 28, 2008.


Academic work

* ''Tito's Communism'' (The Univ. of Denver Press, 1951).
online
* ''Danger in Kashmir'' (Princeton University Press, 1954).
online
* ''The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia, 1938–1948: The Failure of Co-existence'' (Oxford University Press, 1959),
online
* ''Poland Between East and West: Soviet and German Diplomacy toward Poland, 1919–1933'' (Princeton University Press, 1963).
online
* ''Detente in Europe: Real or Imaginary?'' (Princeton University Press, 1972). . * ''Conflict, Compromise, and Conciliation: West German–Polish Normalization 1966–1976'' (with Louis Ortmayer, University of Denver, 1975). * ''The Politics of Soviet Policy Formation: Khrushchev's Innovative Policies in Education and Agriculture'' (University of Denver, 1976). * ''Twentieth-century Czechoslovakia : the meanings of its history'
online


''Danger in Kashmir''

Norman Palmer notes in a review of Korbel's book ''Danger in Kashmir'' that Korbel covers the same ground as Michael Brecher. Yashina Tarr sees that Korbel has succeeded in providing an objective assessment of the United Nations' work and recommends it to readers. Birdwood labels the content on the United Nations Commission involvement "authoritative" due to Korbel's own membership in the Commission. He also observes that the huge number of footnotes and quotations testify to Korbel's vast research put into this "valuable contribution" on the Kashmir dispute. Werner Levi observes that Korbel tends to abstain from giving his own judgements and evaluations. Levi states that Korbel's book is a "comprehensive and balanced statement" of a contested topic.


Artwork ownership controversy

Philipp Harmer, an
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n citizen, filed a lawsuit claiming that Josef Korbel's family is in inappropriate possession of artwork belonging to his great-grandfather, the German entrepreneur Karl Nebrich. Like most other ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia, Nebrich and his family were expelled from the country under the postwar "
Beneš decrees The Beneš decrees were a series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II. They were issued by President Edvard Beneš fr ...
", and left behind artwork and furniture in an apartment subsequently given to Korbel's family, before they also were forced to flee the country.Suzanne Smalley
Germans lost their art, too. Family says Albright's father took paintings
– May 17, 2000
Wealthy Austrian Family Claims Albright's Father Stole Paintings
May 5, 1999


References


External links


Guide to the Josef Korbel papers at the University of Denver
Retrieved September 26, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Korbel, Josef 1909 births 1977 deaths People sentenced to death in absentia Czechoslovak refugees American people of Czech-Jewish descent Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Czechoslovak diplomats Writers about the Kashmir conflict Ambassadors of Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia Josef Korbel School of International Studies people Czech Roman Catholics People from Ústí nad Orlicí District Czech anti-communists Diplomats from Prague Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States Madeleine Albright