Richard Felix Staar

{{Short description|American political scientist and historian (1923–2018)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = Richard Felix Staar | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth date|1923|01|10}} | birth_place = [[Warsaw, Poland]] | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|03|27|1923|01|10}} | death_place = [[Portola Valley, California]] | death_cause = | region = | nationality = | citizenship = USA | residence = | other_names = | occupation = [[political scientist]] and [[historian]] | period = | known_for = | title = | boards =  | spouse = | children = | awards =  | website = | education = | alma_mater =  | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline =  | sub_discipline =  | workplaces =  | doctoral_students =  | notable_students =  | main_interests = | notable_works = [[Yearbook on International Communist Affairs]] | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }}

'''Richard Felix Staar''' (January 10, 1923{{snd}}March 27, 2018) was an American [[political scientist]] and [[historian]]. He held a position of senior fellow at [[Stanford University]]'s [[Hoover Institution]].<ref name="HooverBio">{{cite web |url=http://www.hoover.org/bios/staar.html |title=Richard F. Staar, Senior Fellow |publisher=Hoover Institution |date=August 20, 2010 |access-date=March 9, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091126181106/http://www.hoover.org/bios/staar.html |archive-date=November 26, 2009 }}</ref> His areas of specialization included [[Russia]] and [[East-Central Europe]] (former [[Soviet Union]], [[post-Soviet states]] and the [[Eastern Bloc]]), [[military strategy]], [[national security]], [[arms control]], and [[public diplomacy]]. He was an author of numerous books and articles.

Staar was born in [[Warsaw, Poland]], in 1923. He graduated from [[Dickinson College]] in 1948 and received a master's degree from [[Yale University]] in 1949. Following his master's degree, he joined the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] as an intelligence officer, holding that position until 1950. In 1950 and 1951 he worked as a library assistant at the University of Michigan. Also in 1951, he joined the [[U.S. Department of State]] as an intelligence research specialist, a post he held until 1954, when he completed a Ph.D. in political science at the [[University of Michigan]].<ref name=Reagannomination>{{citation|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=44228#axzz1oeroLtjM |author=Ronald Reagan |title=Nomination of Richard F. Staar To Be United States Representative for Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions Negotiations |date=September 10, 1981 |publisher=Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. }}</ref>

From 1954 to 1957, he served on the faculty of [[Harding College]], moving to [[Arkansas State College]] for one year (1957–58). In 1958 he went to [[Munich, Germany]], where he served for one year as chief of program analysis for [[Radio Free Europe]]. He returned to the United States in 1959 to become a member of the faculty of [[Emory University]], where he remained until 1969 when he joined the Hoover Institution.<ref name=Reagannomination/> There, he became the editor in chief of the ''[[Yearbook on International Communist Affairs]]'' from 1969 until 1991.<ref name="WorldCat"/><ref name ="The Slavonic and East European Review 1971"/><ref name ="APSR 1978"/>

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the position of U.S. [[Ambassador]] to the [[Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions]] (MBFR) negotiations in [[Vienna, Austria]], a position he held until resigning in 1983. He has also been a visiting professor at the [[National War College]], and was a [[colonel]] in the [[U.S. Marine Corps]] Reserve. In 1983, at the age of 60, he was awarded the presidential [[Legion of Merit]].<ref name="HooverBio"/>

The ''[[Sarmatian Review]]'', in a review of his book ''Born Under A Lucky Star: Reminiscences'', said of him: "As associate director of the Hoover Institution for a critical twelve years, he helped make that organization serve the Soviet-slaying purpose for which its founder had endowed it."<ref>{{cite web |title= Born Under A Lucky Star: Reminiscences | author= James R. Thompson |url= http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/903/233thom.html |publisher= Sarmatian Review|access-date= 19 July 2009}}</ref>

He died on March 27, 2018.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Peters |first1=Christina S. |title=Richard Felix Staar: Jan. 10, 1923-March 27, 2018 |url=https://www.paloaltoonline.com/obituaries/memorials/richard-felix-staar?o=5573 |website=Palo Alto Online |access-date=26 September 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Parker |first1=Clifton B. |title=Richard F. Staar, Russian and Eastern European Scholar, Dies at 95 |url=https://www.hoover.org/news/richard-staar-dies |website=hoover.org |publisher=Hoover Institution |access-date=26 September 2018}}</ref>

== References == <references>

<ref name="WorldCat">{{cite book |title=Yearbook on international communist affairs. | publisher= WorldCat |oclc=1680890 }}</ref>

<ref name ="The Slavonic and East European Review 1971">{{cite journal |first1= Harry |last1= Hanak|date= April 1971|title=Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1968 by Richard V. Allen and Milorad Popov |journal= [[The Slavonic and East European Review]]|volume= 49|issue=115 |pages=323 |publisher= the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies|jstor= 4206404}}</ref>

<ref name ="APSR 1978">{{cite journal |last1=Gyorgy |first1=Andrew |date=1978 |title= 1975 Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. Edited by Staar Richard F.. (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1975. Pp. 678. $25.00.)|journal=[[American Political Science Review]] |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=819 |doi=10.2307/1954276 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/1975-yearbook-on-international-communist-affairs-edited-by-staar-richard-f-stanford-calif-hoover-institution-press-1975-pp-678-2500/021714CFDAD17F3EB5AE3F1D16E6DEAD |access-date= May 13, 2017 |jstor=1954276 |s2cid=147472919 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

</references>

==External links== *James R. Thompson, [http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/903/233thom.html Review of Born Under A Lucky Star: Reminiscences], memoirs by Staar *[http://orlabs.oclc.org/identities/lccn-n50-24376 Staar, Richard Felix 1923–] at WorldCat identities

{{DEFAULTSORT:Staar, Richard Felix}} [[Category:1923 births]] [[Category:2018 deaths]] [[Category:Hoover Institution people]] [[Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit]] [[Category:Dickinson College alumni]] [[Category:Yale University alumni]] [[Category:University of Michigan alumni]] [[Category:Arkansas State University faculty]] [[Category:Emory University faculty]] [[Category:Harding University faculty]] [[Category:Reagan administration personnel]] [[Category:American political scientists]] [[Category:Polish emigrants to the United States]]