Ronald Dietrich Asmus
U.S. diplomat and NATO-enlargement advocate; Homestead High / Mequon raise
Net worth
$800,000
April 30, 2011
About
Ronald Dietrich Asmus was the diplomat who helped open NATO’s door to Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary at the 1999 Washington summit.
A Homestead High kid from Milwaukee and Mequon, he argued for enlargement before the job existed and later wrote the books that chronicled it.
He was born in Milwaukee on June 29, 1957, to German parents he later described as fleeing the aftermath of war and destruction. Childhood spanned Milwaukee and Mequon; Homestead High is the lock. At Wisconsin he started in engineering, went to Berlin to look for his grandmother’s 1930s house, found a city still split, and came home to political science. Johns Hopkins SAIS gave him a master’s in Soviet and East European studies and a Ph.D. in European studies. Radio Free Europe, RAND, and the Council on Foreign Relations followed.
President Clinton made him deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs from 1997 to 2000. Opening NATO’s Door (2002) covers the enlargement fight; A Little War that Shook the World (2010) covers Georgia. He was decorated by the State Department and by Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden. He died in Brussels on April 30, 2011, of a lung-cancer-related illness, at fifty-three.
Notable facts
As deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs (1997–2000), he helped bring Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary into NATO at the 1999 Washington summit.
Born in Milwaukee on June 29, 1957, he grew up in Milwaukee and Mequon and attended Homestead High School.
He wrote Opening NATO’s Door (2002) and A Little War that Shook the World (2010); he died in Brussels on April 30, 2011, at age 53.
What questions can this profile answer
- What makes Ronald Dietrich Asmus notable?
- Ronald Dietrich Asmus was the diplomat who helped open NATO’s door to Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary at the 1999 Washington summit. A Homestead High kid from Milwaukee and Mequon, he argued for enlargement before the job existed and later wrote the books that chronicled it.
- What is Ronald Dietrich Asmus's estimated net worth?
- Ronald Dietrich Asmus's estimated net worth is $800,000 as of 2011-04-30.