Robert I. Rotberg Papers

Robert Irwin Rotberg (1935- ) graduated from Oberlin College in 1955 with an AB in politics. He went on to attend Princeton University (MPA) and the University of Oxford (DPhil), the latter as a Rhodes Scholar, and has since made multiple successful careers as author, editor, lecturer, historian, political economist and research director.

One of the most highly respected and prolific academicians in the field of African history and politics, Rotberg is also known for his work on US foreign policy, Asia, and the Caribbean. He has published a number of books on failed states, governance, corruption, African politics, Burma, Haiti, and Sri Lanka, and genocide. He has also written numerous articles for journals both scholarly and popular. Formerly Rotberg was a long-standing professor of politics and history at MIT (1968-1987), Tufts, and Boston University. He served as the academic vice president of Tufts University (1987-1990), and president of Lafayette College (1990-1993).

Besides extensive involvement in the local governance of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Rotberg has also served as member, board member, trustee, director or chairman to nearly forty different organizations of international, historical or educational focus. Amongst these, to name a few, were the National Endowment for the Humanities, Twentieth Century Fund, the Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Advisory Panel on Africa, American Historical Association, Council for International Exchange of Scholars, Seven Springs Symposia on Africa, and the Ciskei Commission (investigating the South African homelands).

Part of Rotberg’s varied career has also been political consultancy for a wide range of organizations. The list includes Chase Manhattan Bank, Pew Charitable Trusts, Exxon’s Minerals Division, WETA-TV, the US State Department, and Johnson and Johnson. The last of these involved “interesting labor negotiations in South Africa.”

Rotberg is the Founding Director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Intrastate Conflict and President Emeritus of the World Peace Foundation (1993-2010). He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2005. He was Fulbright Research Professor at the Paterson School (Carleton) and the Balsillie School (Waterloo), both international affairs graduate schools in Canada.

Rotberg chaired the project on Countering Corruption in Nation-States (2009-2010) and edited the resulting publication, Corruption, Global Security, and World Order (Brookings Institution Press). In fall 2012, he was the inaugural Fulbright Research Chair at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University and at the North-South Institute (NSI). He was a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2014-2015. In 2015-2016, he led a year-long study group on the challenges and opportunities of contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. In 2016-2017, he was the Fulbright Distinguished Professor International Relations at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2018, he edited a special issue of Daedalus: "Anticorruption: How to Beat Back Political and Corporate Graft." His several most recent books are about corruption globally, about transformative political leadership, and about the emergence of Africa.

Robert Rotberg remains an engaged member of the Oberlin College Community. He was President of the Oberlin Alumni Association from 1981 to 1982, and was an Oberlin College Trustee from 1983 to 1995, serving on the Executive Committee, Campus Affairs Committee, Educational Policies Committee, Budget and Finance Committee, as well as Chair of the Personnel Committee and Library Visiting Committee. He received an honorary doctorate from Oberlin College in 2011.

He is Emeritus Trustee of Oberlin College, living in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Sources

Robert I. Rotberg, "Wilson Center website accessed July 20, 2020.

“Professor Robert I. Rotberg,” American Academy Website, accessed July 20, 2020.

Note written by Riza Miklowski