Karl Deutsch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Wolfgang Deutsch (1912 – 1992) was a German-American social and political scientist. His work focused on the study of war and peace, nationalism, co-operation and communication. He is also well known for his interest in introducing quantitative methods and formal system analysis and model-thinking into the rather rhetorical field of political and social sciences, and is one of the most well known social scientists of the 20th century.
Born in Prague on July 21, 1912, Deutsch studied Law at the Deutsche Universität Prag (German University of Prague), where he graduated in 1934. He married his wife Ruth in 1936 and obtained a PhD in Political Sciences at Charles University in Prague in 1938. That same year, he and his wife emigrated to the United States. In 1939 Deutsch obtained a scholarship to carry out advanced studies at Yale University where he received a second PhD in political science in 1951.
He participated in the San Francisco conference that resulted in the creation of the United Nations in 1945. Deutsch taught at several universities; first at MIT from 1943 to 1956, then at Yale University until 1967 and again at Harvard until 1982. He served as Stanfield Professor of International Peace at Harvard, a position he held until his death.
He worked extensively on cybernetics, on the application of simulation and system dynamics models to the study of social, political, and economic problems, known as wicked problems. He built upon earlier efforts at world modeling such as those advanced and advocated by authors of the Club of Rome such as Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows, et al. (1972).
He held several other prestigious positions; he was a member of the board of World Society Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland from 1984 onwards. He was also elected President of the American Political Science Association in 1969, of the International Political Science Association in 1976, and of the Society for General Systems Research in 1983. From 1977 to 1987, he was Director of the International Institute of Comparative Social Research at the Science Centre (Wissenschaftszentrum) in Berlin.
He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on November 1, 1992.
[edit] Selected Publishings
- Nationalism and Social Communication ISBN 0-262-04002-6 , 1953, 1966 — from a dissertation at Harvard
- The Nerves of Government: Models of Political Communication and Control ISBN 0-02-907280-8
- Arms Control and the Atlantic Alliance ISBN 0B0006D7HXO
- The Analysis of International Relations ISBN 0-13-033225-9
- Nationalism and its Alternatives ISBN 0-394-43763-2
- Politics and Government ISBN 0-395-17840-1
- Tides Among Nations ISBN 0-02-907300-6
- Voyage of the Mind, 1930–1980 an autobiographical sketch.
[edit] References
- Senghaas, Dieter. Politik mit wachen Sinnen betreiben! Eine Erinnerung an Karl W. Deutsch (1912–1992). WZB-Mitteilungen 99 · März 2003. [1]
- Back cover of book Problemas para el modelo del mundo (Spanish edition, 1990, of Karl W. Deutsch (editor). 1977. Problems of world modelling). Universidad Externado de Colombia, Fondo Cultural CEREC, 1990. Bogotá, Colombia.
- Merritt, Richard L.; Russett, Bruce M.; Dahl, Robert A. Karl Wolfgang Deutsch. July 21, 1912 – November 1, 1992. Biographical Memoirs. National Academy of Sciences. [2]
