Donald E. Nuechterlein

Can the United States police the world? Can we identify and act on another country’s national security interests? These are some of the issues addressed by Donald Nuechterlein at this month’s meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia.

Donald E. Nuechterlein grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, and received his undergraduate and PhD degrees in political science from the University of Michigan. He served on active duty in the Navy during World War II and was commissioned in 1945. After the war ended, he served in the U.S. military occupation of Germany, in Bremerhaven and Berlin.

Mr. Nuechterlein had a long career in the federal government, at home and abroad. After joining the State Department in 1952, he served in Washington, D.C. and at U.S. embassies in Reykjavik, Iceland, and Bangkok, Thailand. In 1965 he joined the senior staff, International Security Affairs, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, as a specialist on Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. In 1968, he became a founding faculty member of the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville and lectured and conducted seminars on U.S. foreign policy. He retired from government service in 1988.

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Dr. Nuechterlein has taught U.S. foreign policy both in the United States and abroad, including George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Queen’s University in Canada, the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany, and the University of Virginia, where he taught most recently in 2008. He was a Rockefeller fellow at the University of California, Berkeley (1963-64), a Fulbright scholar at the University College of Wales (1976), visiting faculty member of St. Antony’s College, Oxford (1982-83), and research fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra (1991) During each of these fellowships, he wrote a book on various aspects of U.S. foreign policy.

Don is the author of ten books, the most recent: Defiant Superpower: The New American Hegemony (2005). He writes a monthly commentary on international relations for several Virginia papers, including in Charlottesville, Richmond, Lynchburg, and Roanoke.

Don and his wife, Mildred, have four children and six grandchildren, and reside in Albemarle County near Charlottesville.

Mr. Nuechterlein  spoke at the March 9, 2011 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at The Charlottesville Senior Center. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV board member Sue Liberman.