Wilson Center Experts
A. Ross Johnson
Senior Scholar
History and Public Policy Program
Contact Information:
T 202/691-4000
// F 202/691-4001
Expertise:
Cold War
; Democracy
; History
; International Development
; Security and Defense
; Europe
; Russia and Eurasia
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, Hoover Institution; Adviser to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Project, Hoover Archives; Board of Directors of the Freedom Broadcasting Foundation (Washington) and the Institute of Transnational Studies (Munich); Senior Advisor, RFE/RL
Wilson Center Project(s):
"Communicating with Unfree Societies"; “History of the Warsaw Pact”; “Future of the Western Balkans”
Term:
Oct 15, 2006
Oct 31, 2012
A. Ross Johnson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, adviser to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Archive Project at Hoover, senior adviser to the president of RFE/RL, and senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Johnson was a senior executive of RFE/RL from 1988 to 2002, serving as director of Radio Free Europe, director of the RFE/RL Research Institute, and acting president and counselor of RFE/RL. He was a senior staff member of the RAND Corporation from 1969 to 1988, where he specialized in East European and Soviet security issues. He was a visiting RAND research fellow at the Foundation for Science and Politics, Germany, in 1983–85.
In recognition of his contribution in preserving the archives of the RFE/RL Polish service, Johnson received the Laurel Award from the prime minister of Poland in 2001 and a citation for Meritorious Service to Polish Culture from the Polish minister of culture in 1996.
Education
Johnson received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1967. He earned an M.A. in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1962 and an A.B. with great distinction in international relations from Stanford University in 1961.
Major Publications
- “Today’s Liberation Technologies,” Hoover Digest, no. 3 (2011);
- Cold War Broadcasting: Impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: A Collection of Studies and Documents (CEU Press, 2010, co-edited with R. Eugene Parta);
- Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond (WWC and Stanford U. Press, 2010);
- Communicating with the World of Islam (Hoover Press, 2008, editor);
- “To the Barricades; Did Radio Free Europe inflame the Hungarian revolutionaries of 1956? Exploring one of the Cold War's most stubborn myths,” Hoover Digest, no. 4 (2007);
- "Setting the Record Straight: Radio Free Europe and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, "History and Public Policy Program Occasional Paper #3, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, October 2006
- "Cold war Broadcasting Impact," co-author, Hoover Institution, 2005
- "Kosovo: Keeping the Lid On," Hoover Digest, No. 3 (2004);
- "Security and Insecurity in the Balkans," in Klaus Lange and Leonid L. Fituni, eds., Integrating Regional and Global Security Cooperation (Hanns Seidel Stiftung, 2002);
- East European Armed Forces and Soviet Military Planning; Factors of Change (RAND Corporation, 1989);
- Political Change and Dissent in Eastern Europe (RAND Corporation, 1987);
- East European Military Reliability: An Émigré-Based Assessment (RAND Corporation, 1986);
- Political Leadership in Yugoslavia: Evolution of the League of Communists (RAND Corporation, 1983;
- Coauthor of East European Military Establishments: The Warsaw Pact Northern Tier (Crane Russak, 1982);
- The Yugoslav Military Elite (RAND Corporation, 1977);
- The Transformation of Communist Ideology, the Yugoslav Case, 1945–1953 (MIT Press, 1972).
Related Content for this Expert
e-Dossier No. 32 - Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
Apr 04, 2012CWIHP is pleased to announce the addition a new document collection to its online Digital Archive. This release contains newly-declassified US government documents obtained by A. Ross Johnson for his book 'Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond.' more
An Assessment of the Decade of Western Peace-keeping and Nation-building in the Balkans
Jul 07, 2011327. Status with Standards: Analysis of the Progress on the Kosovo Status Talks
Jul 07, 2011October 2006- From all accounts, the talks that have been held in Vienna over the last year, which brought together delegations from Serbia and Kosovo to negotiate Kosovo's status, have not enjoyed the substantial progress that some might have expected. Despite this deadlock, the undertones of official public statements regarding Kosovo's status clearly point to the fact that Kosovo's status will eventually be as an independent state, although the details of how and when are not clear. What seems to be neglected almost completely in this discussion is what will happen "the day after" the status decision is announced. The focus on the Talks has meant that all energies in Serbia have been spent on crafting arguments for why Kosovo must not become independent, while nothing is being done to prepare the Serbian electorate or the Serbs living in Kosovo for the separation that seems imminent. Likewise in Pristina, calls for independence ring hollow, given the poor record of self-governance there. To address these neglected issues, EES organized a short conference of experts to discuss the many consequences of the Kosovo status decision and the international community's continuing efforts to create a functioning democracy in Kosovo and maintain peace throughout the Balkan region. more
Yugoslavia: Oblique Insights and Observations
April 02, 2009 // 3:30pm — 5:00pm
Mary Rusinow; A. Ross Johnson, Woodrow Wilson Center Senior Scholar; and Gale Stokes, Professor Emeritus of History, Rice University more
Warsaw Pact: Wartime Statutes—Instruments of Soviet Control
April 05, 2011 // 1:00pm — 4:30pm
A collection of recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents demonstrates that in the early 1980s the U.S. government learned quickly of new Warsaw Pact planning instruments and accurately assessed the role that the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact allies were expected to play in a conflict in Europe. more
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond
January 20, 2011 // 3:00pm — 4:30pm
Wilson Center senior scholar and former director of Radio Free Europe, A. Ross Johnson discussed his latest book which examines the first twenty years of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. more
Warsaw Pact: Wartime Statutes—Instruments of Soviet Control
April 05, 2011 // 1:00pm — 4:30pm
A collection of recently declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents demonstrates that in the early 1980s the U.S. government learned quickly of new Warsaw Pact planning instruments and accurately assessed the role that the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact allies were expected to play in a conflict in Europe.
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond
January 20, 2011 // 3:00pm — 4:30pm
Wilson Center senior scholar and former director of Radio Free Europe, A. Ross Johnson discussed his latest book which examines the first twenty years of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
Yugoslavia: Oblique Insights and Observations
April 02, 2009 // 3:30pm — 5:00pm
Mary Rusinow; A. Ross Johnson, Woodrow Wilson Center Senior Scholar; and Gale Stokes, Professor Emeritus of History, Rice University
e-Dossier No. 32 - Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
Apr 04, 2012CWIHP is pleased to announce the addition a new document collection to its online Digital Archive. This release contains newly-declassified US government documents obtained by A. Ross Johnson for his book 'Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond.'
327. Status with Standards: Analysis of the Progress on the Kosovo Status Talks
Jul 07, 2011October 2006- From all accounts, the talks that have been held in Vienna over the last year, which brought together delegations from Serbia and Kosovo to negotiate Kosovo's status, have not enjoyed the substantial progress that some might have expected. Despite this deadlock, the undertones of official public statements regarding Kosovo's status clearly point to the fact that Kosovo's status will eventually be as an independent state, although the details of how and when are not clear. What seems to be neglected almost completely in this discussion is what will happen "the day after" the status decision is announced. The focus on the Talks has meant that all energies in Serbia have been spent on crafting arguments for why Kosovo must not become independent, while nothing is being done to prepare the Serbian electorate or the Serbs living in Kosovo for the separation that seems imminent. Likewise in Pristina, calls for independence ring hollow, given the poor record of self-governance there. To address these neglected issues, EES organized a short conference of experts to discuss the many consequences of the Kosovo status decision and the international community's continuing efforts to create a functioning democracy in Kosovo and maintain peace throughout the Balkan region.
272. Peacekeeping in the Balkans: An Assessment of the Decade
Jul 07, 2011In April 1992, the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) was deployed to Croatia with a 12-month term and a mission to demilitarize and protect "the continuing functioning, on an interim basis, of the existing local authorities and police, under United Nations supervision, pending the achievement of an overall political solution to the crisis." More than ten years, thousands of peacekeepers, and hundreds of millions of dollars later, the former states of Yugoslavia are arguably as far from a political solution as they ever were. In a recent meeting sponsored by the East European Studies Program, two Balkans experts, A. Ross Johnson and Misha Glenny assessed the past ten years of peacekeeping in Southeastern Europe and offered alternative strategies for the future.
