Robert Louis Pfaltzgraff, WG’58 Gr’64, a former assistant professor of political science in the School of Arts & Sciences, died peacefully on November 17, 2023. He was 89. 

Dr. Pfaltzgraff graduated from Yeadon High School in Yeadon, Pennsylvania in 1952, then received his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in 1956. He earned a doctorate in international relations in 1958 and an MBA in 1964, both from the Wharton School. After graduating, he joined Penn’s faculty as an assistant professor of political science. While at Penn, he served as an assistant editor of Orbis, the journal of Penn’s Foreign Policy Research Institute. In 1968, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to research political alliances of 19th-century Europe, and a year later, he was selected to serve on the Board of Selection of the U.S. Information Agency.

In 1971, Dr. Pfaltzgraff accepted a faculty position at the Fletcher School of Tufts University, where he taught for fifty years and eventually rose to become the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Security Studies. “He was the visionary behind the establishment of Fletcher’s International Securities Program, laying the foundation for numerous graduates to embark on impactful careers in foreign service and security intelligence,” said Tufts University in a tribute to Dr. Pfaltzgraff. At Tufts, he also founded and was president of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, an organization that specialized in national security, foreign policy, and defense planning issues. Tufts University will establish an endowed chair in his honor in its international securities program. 

Outside of his academic affiliations, Dr. Pfaltzgraff led a decorated career. He advised government officials on military strategy, defense modernization, alliance relations, proliferation and counterproliferation, terrorism, homeland security, and national security policy. He worked with several U.S. presidential administrations and was a member of the Reagan Defense Advisory Team, formed before President Reagan’s election in 1980. After the fall of the Soviet Union, he briefed President George Herbert Walker Bush, Brent Scowcroft, and Condoleezza Rice on foreign policy planning. He was a member of the Independent Working Group of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the International Churchill Society. He published numerous journal articles and books, including (as co-author) the influential Contending Theories of International Relations, which is still widely taught today. In November 2022, he was named an honorary professor at Panteion University in Athens, Greece.

Dr. Pfaltzgraff was predeceased by his wife Diane; he is survived by his children, Suzanne (Karl) Scheel and Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, III (James N. Black, V); his grandson, Dietrich K. Scheel; his brother, Richard Pfaltzgraff; and his partner of many years, Jacquelyn K. Davis.