Ronald Dietrich Asmus (June 29, 1957 – April 30, 2011) was a

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

diplomat and political analyst. As U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (1997–2000), he was instrumental in the expansion of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

to include former members of the

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and acted as a leading policy designer in the U.S.–Europe relations.

Biography

Asmus was born to a family of German immigrants who came to

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He grew up in Milwaukee and Mequon, Wisconsin graduating from Homestead High School. Asmus held a BA in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a master's degree in Soviet and East European studies and a PhD in European Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. Prior to his government service, Asmus was a senior analyst and fellow at Radio Free Europe, RAND and the Council on Foreign Relations, where he was an early and strong proponent of expanding NATO into

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. Asmus then served as 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 the Alliance. For his diplomatic work, Asmus was decorated by the US Department of State and the governments of Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden. Asmus later served as the executive director of the Brussels-based Transatlantic Center and was also responsible for strategic planning at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. During this time he also worked as a part-time advisor to Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. 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 Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

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. Asmus died of a lung cancer-related illness in Brussels on April 30, 2011. The U.S. Department of State, governments of the

Baltic states The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

and Georgia expressed their condolences over the death of Asmus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asmus, Ronald D. 1957 births 2011 deaths Diplomats for the United States American political scientists American people of German descent People from Mequon, Wisconsin Writers from Milwaukee Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty people 20th-century American diplomats