{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2017}} {{Infobox academic | name = Robert Lieber | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois | occupation = Professor | alma_mater = University of Wisconsin–Madison <small>(B.A.)</small><br>Harvard University <small>(Ph.D.)</small> | workplaces = Georgetown University | spouse = {{marriage|Nancy|1964}} | children = 2 }} '''Robert J. Lieber''' (born September 29, 1941)<ref>{{cite book |title=Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors |date=2013 |publisher=Gale |isbn=9780787639952 |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000059976/BIC?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=1fa1f697 |access-date=7 October 2022 |format=Collection |chapter=Robert J. Lieber }}</ref> is an American academic and Professor of Government and International Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Lieber is the author or editor of a total of seventeen books and has served as the Chair of the Government Department and as Interim Chair of Psychology.
==Education== Lieber completed his undergraduate degree in political science at the University of Wisconsin. Lieber spent a year in the Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago, where he studied with the distinguished realist scholar Hans Morgenthau. Lieber continued his graduate program in Government at Harvard, earning his doctorate in political science in 1968.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RiA2AAK/robert-lieber|title=Robert Lieber|website=Georgetown University|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180331042416/https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RiA2AAK/robert-lieber|archive-date=31 March 2018|url-status=live|access-date=31 March 2018}}</ref> At Harvard, Lieber took classes from distinguished scholars including Stanley Hoffmann, Samuel H. Beer, Louis Hartz, and the future Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. Lieber accepted his first assistant professorship at the University of California, Davis. During his years at UCD, he took a number of research leaves, including a year's postgraduate study at St. Antony's College, Oxford and visiting research appointments at the Harvard Center for International Affairs, the Atlantic Institute and the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris, and the Woodrow Wilson Center and Brookings Institution in Washington. He was appointed to a professorship at Georgetown in 1982, where he has taught ever since.
=== Public Intellectual === Lieber has been invited on to various outlets to discuss topics including oil prices, American declinism, and American foreign policy strategy. He has been on The Diane Rehm Show, PBS Newshour and NBC's NewsConference to address current events and publicize his books.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/international-jan-june06-energy_2-01/|title=Facing America's Dependence on Foreign Energy|website=PBS NewsHour|date=February 2006 |language=en-US|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/oil-prices-soar-amid-new-middle-east-tensions|title=Oil Prices Soar Amid New Middle East Tensions|website=PBS NewsHour|date=October 26, 2007 |language=en-US|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2006-06-15/global-politics-oil|title=Global Politics of Oil - The Diane Rehm Show|website=The Diane Rehm Show|language=en-US|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nbclosangeles.com/shows/news-conference/160091525.html|title=NewsConference: Robert Lieber, Author and Georgetown Professor|website=NBC Southern California|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref> Lieber has made appearances on major American cable network programs, such as CNN's Crossfire and the O'Reilly Factor, as well as international television sources such as Al Jazeera and BBC.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521697385&ss=fro|title=The American Era - Cambridge University Press|website=www.cambridge.org|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref> He has also been used as a source for the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, National Interest Online, and Roll Call for stories ranging from the Obama administration's foreign policy to Donald Trump, ISIS, and the 2016 Presidential Election.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/seeking-americas-lost-greatness-and-finding-trump-most-appealing/2015/10/31/2435e06e-7c12-11e5-b575-d8dcfedb4ea1_story.html|title=Seeking America's 'lost' greatness and finding Trump most appealing|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2016/0322/Cuba-visit-Why-foreign-speeches-are-a-hallmark-of-Obama-s-presidency|title=Cuba visit: Why foreign speeches are a hallmark of Obama's presidency|last=LaFranchi|first=Howard|date=March 22, 2016|newspaper=Christian Science Monitor|issn=0882-7729|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://nationalinterest.org/feature/america%E2%80%99s-hollow-foreign-policy-debate-10839|title=National Interest|last=Nichols|first=Tom|date=July 10, 2014|website=National Interest Online|publisher=National Interest|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rollcall.com/news/home/republicans-hope-blame-paris-attacks-sticks-clinton|title=Republicans Hope Blame for Paris Attacks Sticks to Clinton|date=November 17, 2015|website=Roll Call|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref>
In the policy realm, he has served as an advisor to several presidential campaigns, to the State Department, and to the drafters of U.S. National Intelligence Estimates. In early 1991, Lieber participated in a debate with Christopher Hitchens at Georgetown over the merits of the First Gulf War. Lieber supported the war while Hitchens opposed it.<ref>Newell, Felton. "Teach-In Challenges Assumptions of War." ''The Hoya''[Georgetown, Washington, D.C.] February 22, 1991: n. pag. Print.</ref>
==Publications==
Lieber has authored nine books since 1970, mostly on international relations theory, U.S. foreign policy, petroleum politics and European affairs. He has been the editor or co-editor of eight other books in the field. Most recently he has authored a series of books on American engagement and retrenchment in the 21st century, published by Cambridge University Press.
He has written pieces for the Washington Post, New York Times, National Interest, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, Harper's, and Salon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/2012/05/14/is_american_decline_real/|title=Is American decline real?|last=J.Lieber|first=Robert|website=Salon|date=May 14, 2012 |access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/02/10/politics-stops-at-the-waters-edge-not-recently/|title=Politics stops at the water's edge? Not recently.|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jan-04-la-oe-lieber4-2010jan04-story.html|title=Obama's can't-do style|last=Lieber|first=Robert J.|date=January 4, 2010|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://harpers.org/archive/1975/01/costs-of-amorality/|title=Costs of amorality|last1=Lieber|first1=Robert J.|date=January 1, 1975|last2=Rothchild|first2=Donald S.|newspaper=Harper's Magazine|issn=0017-789X|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/19/opinion/baker-s-middle-east-phone.html|title=Baker's Middle East Phone|last1=Yaniv|first1=Avner|date=July 19, 1990|last2=Government|first2=Robert J. Lieber; Avner Yaniv Is Visiting Professor Of Government At Georgetown University, Where Robert J. Lieber Is Professor Of|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref>
=== "Reductio ad Iraqum" === In his 2005 book, ''The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century,'' Lieber coined the neologism "Reductio ad Iraqum," to refer to the contentious political climate after the 2003 invasion of Iraq where debate on major foreign policy dilemmas often devolved into the blame game and reductive arguments over the consequences of the war.<ref name=":0" /> The phrase has continued to circulate around foreign policy analysis for at least a decade after its inception.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/13/the-foreign-policy-question-democrats-hope-to-avoid/|title=The Foreign Policy Question Democrats Hope to Avoid|website=Foreign Policy|access-date=May 23, 2016}}</ref>
==Personal life==
Lieber appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller ''North by Northwest'' as an extra.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Robert-J.-Lieber/e/B001HCXZ66|title=Amazon.com: Robert J. Lieber: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle|website=www.amazon.com|access-date=May 24, 2016}}</ref>
==Works== * ''[https://archive.org/details/oildecade0000unse The Oil Decade: Conflict and Cooperation in the West]'' (1983) * ''[https://archive.org/details/eagleentangledus0000oyek Eagle entangled : U.S. foreign policy in a complex world]'' (1979) * ''[https://archive.org/details/eagledefiantunit00oyek Eagle defiant : United States foreign policy in the 1980s]'' (1983) * ''[https://archive.org/details/eagleresurgentre00oyek Eagle resurgent?: the Reagan era in American foreign policy]'' (1987) * ''[https://archive.org/details/eagleinnewworlda0000unse Eagle in a new world : American grand strategy in the post-Cold War era]'' (1992) * ''[https://archive.org/details/eagleadriftameri0000unse Eagle adrift: American foreign policy at the end of the century]'' (1997) * ''[https://archive.org/details/eaglerulesforeig0000unse/mode Eagle rules?: foreign policy and American primacy in the twenty-first century]'' (2002) * ''The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century'' (2005) * ''[https://archive.org/details/powerwillpowerin0000lieb Power and Willpower in the American Future]'' (2012) * ''Retreat and its Consequences: American Foreign Policy and the Problem of World Order'' (2016) * ''Indispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in a Turbulent World'' (2022)
== See also == * List of Georgetown University Faculty * Declinism * American Exceptionalism * National Intelligence Estimate * Council on Foreign Relations
== References == {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== *{{C-SPAN|6572}} {{Library resources box|about=no|by=yes}}{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Lieber, Robert}} Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category: University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:Georgetown University faculty