Arnold Wolfers

Arnold Oskar Wolfers (the spelling of the middle name later changed to Oscar) was born on June 14, 1892, who emigrated and became a naturalized Swiss citizen in 1905, Arnold grew up in St. Gallen Wolfers studied law at the University of Lausanne, University of Munich, and University of Berlin beginning in 1912, in April 1917. On the other hand, his Swiss background did provide to him an example of how a multi-lingual federation of cantons could prosper. In 1918, Wolfers married Doris Emmy Forrer. She studied art, attending the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva as well as the University of Geneva, and spent a year at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich during the early stages of World War I. Wolfers studied economics and political science at the Universities of Zurich and Berlin from 1920 to 1924, with his study at the University of Zurich concluding with a certificate in April 1920. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Giessen in Germany in 1924. During this time, Wolfers' abilities with languages allowed him to act as an interpreter in some situations. He first traveled to the United States in 1924 and delivered lectures to various audiences. ==Academic career in Germany==

By one later account, Wolfers emigrated to Germany following the conclusion of World War I, while another had him living in Germany starting in 1921. In 1933, stories describe him as Swiss-German or a native Swiss and naturalized German. But in 1940 he is described as having been a Swiss before being naturalized as an American, something that a later historical account also states. Wolfers was one of the early people in the circle around Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich, The Hochschule attracted many religious socialists, who were interested in combining spiritual development with social reform in an effort to provide an attractive alternative to Marxism. Between 1929 and 1933, Wolfers was a privatdozent (roughly, assistant professor) in economics at the University of Berlin. In his address before them, Wolfers urged more financial help from Great Britain and the United States to Continental Europe: "What Europe needs is not general declarations for peace and cooperation – people are getting sick of them. We need proposals to help overcome concrete pressing difficulties." Wolfers, like other German academics, witnessed first-hand the demise of the Weimar Republic and the rise to power of the Nazi Party. While some of the academics perceived immediately the reality of the Nazis, Wolfers, along with Jaeckh, did not. In this manner Wolfers tended to be in agreement with some of the foreign policy objectives of the Nazi regime, especially in the East, thinking that those objectives could play a part in restoring the European balance of power. As for other aspects of the Nazis, Wolfers failed to comprehend the amount of racism and authoritarianism essential to Nazi ideology. Hitler seized control in the Machtergreifung in January 1933. At some point, Wolfers, a "half-Jew" (Halbjude) in the language of the Third Reich, was classified as "undesirable" (unerwünscht) by the new regime. In late April 1933, Wolfers was offered a position as a visiting professor of international relations at Yale University, where he was to lecture on world economics and European governments. ==Master at Yale==

Wolfers traveled to the United States on the SS Albert Ballin, arriving on August 11, 1933. He commented that Europeans generally felt threatened by U.S. monetary policy, but that people in Germany were sympathetic to U.S. leadership in trying to overcome the Depression. In a February 1934 speech before the Foreign Policy Association in New York, Wolfers said, "The cause of present unrest is France's extravagant demands. ... Germany has lost her territorial cohesion; she has been forced to live in conflict with her Eastern neighbors, and is deprived of the most meager of self-defense." In 1934 the German embassy in Washington expressed satisfaction with the contents of Wolfers' lectures in the United States. In terms of economics, Wolfers spoke somewhat favorably of New Deal initiatives such as the National Recovery Administration that sought to manage some competitive forces. In 1935, Wolfers was named as professor of international relations at Yale. As part of gaining the position, Wolfers received an honorary A.M. from Yale in 1935, Also in 1935, Wolfers was appointed master of Pierson College at Yale, succeeding Alan Valentine. The college system had just been created at Yale two years earlier and masterships were sought after by faculty for the extra stipend and larger living environment they allotted. A master was expected to provide a civilizing influence to the resident students and much of that role was filled by Doris Wolfers. When diplomats visited the campus, it was the Wolferses who provided the entertainment. Doris Wolfers became a frequent attendee or patroness at tea dances and other events to celebrate debutantes. He would accompany her to some university dances. One former Yale undergraduate later said that he had lived in Pierson and that as head of the hall, Wolfers had been wiser and more useful regarding the practical issues of foreign policy than any of the faculty in political science. Veterans returning after the war would express how much they had missed Doris. Another development in 1935 was that the Yale Institute of International Studies was created, with Wolfers as one of three founding members along with Frederick S. Dunn and Nicholas J. Spykman with Spykman as the first director. Wolfers gained campus renown for his lectures on global interests and strategy. and in 1939, Wolfers was naturalized as an American citizen. His 1940 book Britain and France Between Two Wars, a study of the foreign policies of the two countries in the interwar period, became influential. An assessment in The New York Times Book Review by Edgar Packard Dean said that the book was a "substantial piece of work" and that Wolfers handled his descriptions with "extraordinary impartiality" but that his analysis of French policy was stronger than of British policy. Another review in the same publication referred to Britain and France Between Two Wars as "a most excellent and carefully documented study" by an "eminent Swiss scholar". ==World War II involvements==

Wolfers actively assisted the U.S. war effort during World War II. He served as an expert consultant to the Office of Provost Marshal General, also from 1942 to 1944. Overall a disproportionate number of intelligence workers came from Pierson College; in addition to Wolfers, other Pierson fellows who did recruiting included Wallace Notestein and C. Bradford Welles. Pierson College residents who later became intelligence figures included James Jesus Angleton, who often spent time in Wolfers' living room listening to poets such as Robert Frost that Wolfers brought in to read. Other attendees to these sessions included a future U.S. Poet Laureate, Reed Whittemore. In addition, Anita Forrer, Doris's sister, became an OSS agent and conducted secret and dangerous operations in Switzerland on behalf of Allen Dulles. In June 1944, Wolfers was among a group of ten prominent Protestant clergy and laymen organized by the Commission on a Just and Durable Peace who issued a signed statement advocating a way of dealing with Germany after war. The statement said that Germany should not be left economically destitute or subjected to excessive reparations, as "an impoverished Germany will continue to be a menace to the peace of the world," and that punishment for German extermination campaigns against Jews and war crimes against those in occupied territories should be limited to those responsible and not extended to those just carrying out orders. A month after V-E Day, Wolfers had a letter published wherein he remarked upon "the shocking revelations" of Nazi concentration camps but still recommended "stern but humane rules" for directing the future of the German people. ==Later Yale years==

Wolfers was one of the contributors to Bernard Brodie's landmark 1946 volume The Absolute Weapon: Atomic Power and World Order, which focused on the effect of the new atomic bomb on U.S.-Soviet relations. He worked with Basil Duke Henning, the master of Saybrook College, on a study of what Soviet leaders would judge American foreign policy options to be if they used the European press for their information. Wolfers continued to serve as a recruiter for the Central Intelligence Agency when it was formed after the war. He was a strong influence on John A. McCone, who later became Director of Central Intelligence (1961–65). A distinguishing feature of Wolfers' career was his familiarity with power and his policy-oriented focus, which assumed that academia should try to shape the policies of government. A noted American international relations academic, Kenneth W. Thompson, subsequently wrote that Wolfers, as the most policy-oriented of the Yale institute's scholars, "had an insatiable yearning for the corridors of power" and because of that may have compromised his scholarly detachment and independence. He was a consultant to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs during 1951 The Wolferses, who had spent summers in Switzerland in the prewar years, considered moving back to Switzerland after the war, but decided to stay in the United States. Wolfers was named a Sterling professor of international relations in 1949, He was, as one author later stated, "a revered doyen in the field of international relations". and that the institute should do more historical, detached analysis rather than focus on current issues and recommendations on policy. Most of the institute's scholars left Yale, with many of them going to Princeton University and founding the Center of International Studies there in 1951, but Wolfers remained at Yale for several more years. ==Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research==

Wolfers left Yale in 1957, at the age of 65, but retained an emeritus title there. Unsettled by some feuding going on at Yale regarding the future of international relations study there, Wolfers was willing to leave Yale and move to Washington to take on the new position. At the Washington Center, Wolfers brought academics and government officials together to discuss national security policy. Wolfers was willing to question prevailing academic opinions and ideologies and, in Nitze's words, "brought a wind of fresh air to what had been a fairly stodgy and opinionated group. He was a joy to work with." Wolfers consulted for the Institute for Defense Analyses in 1960 and 1961 and was a consultant to the State Department from 1960 on. Wolfers belonged to a number of academic organizations and clubs, including the International Institute for Strategic Studies (for which he was a member of the international advisory council), the American Political Science Association, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Century Association, and the Cosmos Club. ==Final years==

Wolfers retired from the Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research in 1965 Beginning in 1958, the Wolferses spent more time at their Maine house, She specialized in embroidery-based textual montages. Wolfers died on July 16, 1968, in a hospital in Blue Hill, Maine. Doris focused even more on her artistic endeavors after he was gone and would live until 1987. ==Awards and honors==

Wolfers received an honorary Litt.D. from Mount Holyoke College in 1934. He had a long relationship with that school, including giving the Founder's Day address in 1933, and delivering a commencement address in 1948. Wolfers was also granted an honorary LL.D. from the University of Rochester in 1945. Watson's gift was subsequently increased to $1 million. ==Legacy==

Two Festschrift volumes were published in tribute to Wolfers. The first, Foreign Policy in the Sixties: The Issues and the Instruments: Essays in Honor of Arnold Wolfers, edited by Roger Hilsman and Robert C. Good, came out in 1965 during Wolfers' lifetime. It largely featured contributions from his former students, including ones from Raymond L. Garthoff, Laurence W. Martin, Lucian W. Pye, W. Howard Wriggins, Ernest W. Lefever, and the editors. The second, Discord and Collaboration in a New Europe: Essays in Honor of Arnold Wolfers, edited by Douglas T. Stuart and Stephen F. Szabo, came out in 1994 based on a 1992 conference at Dickinson College. It featured contributions from Martin again, Catherine McArdle Kelleher, Vojtech Mastny, and others, as well as the editors. In terms of international relations theory, the editors of the second Festschrift characterize Wolfers as "the reluctant realist". Wolfers could be categorized as belonging to "progressive realists", figures who often shared legal training, left-leaning traits in their thinking, and institutionally reformist goals. Wolfers' focus on morality and ethics in international relations, which he viewed as something that could transcend demands for security depending upon circumstances, is also unusual for a realist. Martin believes Wolfers "swam against the tide" within the realist school, taking "a middle line that makes him seem in retrospect a pioneer revisionist of realism." But Wolfers did not subscribe to alternative explanations for international relations, such as behaviorism or quantification, instead preferring to rely upon, as he said, "history, personal experience, introspection, common sense and the gift of logical reason". The progressive, democratic reputation that the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik enjoyed for decades became diminished as a result of scholarly research performed in the latter part of the twentieth century which showed that the Hochschule's relationship with the Nazi Party was not the one of pure opposition that had been portrayed. With those findings, Wolfers' reputation in connection to his role there suffered somewhat as well. By one account, it took six decades for any of Wolfers' former students in the United States to concede that Wolfers, even after having left Germany and finding a secure position at Yale, had still during the 1930s shown some ideological sympathies with the Nazi regime. The second provides two components for the notion of national security; Wolfers wrote that "security, in an objective sense, measures the absence of threats to acquired values, in a subjective sense, the absence of fear that such values will be attacked." Wolfers found composition difficult and his written output was small, with Britain and France Between Two Wars and Discord and Collaboration being his two major works. But what Wolfers did write found an audience; by 1994, Discord and Collaboration was in its eighth printing, twenty-five years after his death. In the introduction to the second Festschrift, Douglas T. Stuart wrote, "The book stands the test of time for two reasons. First, the author addresses enduring aspects of international relations and offers insightful recommendations about the formulation and execution of foreign policy. Second, Wolfers's writings are anchored in a sophisticated theory of situational ethics that is valid for any historical period, but that is arguably more relevant today than it was when Wolfers was writing." In his 2011 book, political theorist William E. Scheuerman posits three "towering figures" of mid-twentieth century classical realism – E. H. Carr, Hans J. Morgenthau, Reinhold Niebuhr – and next includes Wolfers, along with John H. Herz and Frederick L. Schuman, in a group of "prominent postwar US political scientists, relatively neglected today but widely respected at mid century". On the other hand, in a 2011 remark the British international relations scholar Michael Cox mentioned Wolfers as one of the "giants" of international relations theory, along with Hans Morgenthau, Paul Nitze, William T. R. Fox, and Reinhold Niebuhr. In the 2011 Encyclopedia of Power, Douglas T. Stuart wrote that "More than 40 years after his death, Arnold Wolfers remains one of the most influential experts in the field of international relations." ==Published works==

• Die Verwaltungsorgane der Aktiengesellschaft nach schweizerischem Recht unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Verhältnisses von Verwaltungsrat und Direktion (Sauerländer, 1917) (Zürcher Beiträge zur Rechtswissenschaft 66). • Die Aufrichtung der Kapitalherrschaft in der abendländischen Geschichte (1924, thesis). • "Über monopolistische und nichtmonopolistische Wirtschaftsverbände", Archiv für Sozialwissenschaften und Sozialpolitik 59 (1928), 291–321. • "Ueberproduktion, fixe Kosten und Kartellierung", Archiv für Sozialwissenschaften und Sozialpolitik 60 (1928), 382–395. • Amerikanische und deutsche Löhne: eine Untersuchung über die Ursachen des hohen Lohnstandes in den Vereinigten Staaten (Julius Springer, 1930). • Das Kartellproblem im Licht der deutschen Kartellliteratur (Duncker & Humblot, 1931). • "Germany and Europe", Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs 9 (1930), 23–50. • "The Crisis of the Democratic Régime in Germany", International Affairs 11 (1932), 757–783. • Britain and France Between Two Wars: Conflicting Strategies of Peace Since Versailles (Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1940); revised edition (W. W. Norton, 1966) • The Absolute Weapon: Atomic Power and World Order (Harcourt Brace, 1946) [co-author with Bernard Brodie, Frederick Sherwood Dunn, William T. R. Fox, Percy Ellwood Corbett] • The Anglo-American Tradition in Foreign Affairs (Yale University Press, 1956) [co-editor with Laurence W. Martin] • Alliance Policy in the Cold War (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1959) [editor] • Developments in Military Technology and Their Impact on United States Strategy and Foreign Policy (Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research for U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1959) [co-author with Paul Nitze and James E. King] • Discord and Collaboration: Essays on International Politics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1962) ==Bibliography==