The Josef Korbel School of International Studies has offered degree programs in international affairs since its founding in 1964 as the Graduate School of International Studies. The school was renamed May 28, 2008. The name honors the school's founder and first dean, Josef Korbel, who was also the father of Madeleine Albright, the first woman U.S. Secretary of State.

Ben M. Cherrington

Ben Mark Cherrington is credited with laying the foundation for the Josef Korbel School's hallmark strengths: a global perspective, academic integrity, emphasis on the relevance of theory to skills and support of initiatives and activities that support a peaceful and prosperous world.

Cherrington was the chair of the Department of International Relations at the University of Denver (the precursor to the Josef Korbel School). Under his leadership the department gained a national reputation. Thanks to Cherrington's drive and enthusiasm for organizing conferences, seminars and lectures on international affairs, Denver became a temporary home to politicians, diplomats, academics and business leaders from around the world—a tradition that lives on today.

While professor and chair of the Department of International Relations, Cherrington was also at the forefront of efforts to create a formal institution for U.S. public diplomacy, implementing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy," which was designed to reverse decades of U.S. paternalism toward Latin America. In 1938, Cherrington was handpicked by the State Department to lead its new Division of Cultural Relations and tasked with carrying out "the exchange of professors, teachers, and students . . . cooperation in the field of music, art, literature . . . international radio broadcasts . . . generally, the dissemination abroad of the representative intellectual and cultural work of the U.S." Cherrington served as chancellor of the University of Denver from 1943 to 1946 and was later an author of the United Nations Charter.

Josef Korbel

Josef Korbel, our school's namesake, is widely known today as the father of Madeleine Albright, the 64th U.S. Secretary of State and the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State.

A diplomat in Czechoslovakia, Korbel's Jewish heritage forced him to flee after the Nazi invasion in 1939. He served as an advisor to Edvard Benes, the exiled Czech president in London, until the Third Reich was defeated. He then returned to Czechoslovakia to serve as the country's ambassador to Yugoslavia but was forced to flee again during the Communist coup in 1948. After learning he had been tried and sentenced to death in absentia, Korbel was granted political asylum in the United States and was hired in 1949 to teach international politics at the University of Denver.

In 1964, with the support of Ben Cherrington, Korbel founded the Graduate School of International Studies and became its first dean. To house the school, the 30,300-square-foot Ben M. Cherrington Hall was built in 1965.

In the post-Cold War world, Korbel helped pioneer the field of international studies. He was revered as a teacher-mentor by those who knew him and widely regarded in his day as a skilled diplomat. His scholarship was rigorous and perceptive. For example, his books on Yugoslavia, Poland and Czechoslovakia established him as a leading authority on post-World War II Eastern Europe; his 1954 Danger in Kashmir is still considered a classic for its penetrating diplomatic analysis of a territorial dispute and armed conflict with implications for international security.

Though less well known than some other philosopher-academics of his generation, Korbel "arguably had a more enduring and practical impact on the history of American policy," according to National Public Radio correspondent Guy Raz. By the time Korbel died in 1977, he had left behind "a legacy that spawned two generations of top diplomats and leaders," including his daughter, Madeleine, and star pupil at the University of Denver, Condoleezza Rice.

Legacy of Excellence

The Graduate School of International Studies was renamed Josef Korbel School of International Studies on May 28, 2008, thanks to the family of Josef Korbel. The new name recognizes that Korbel's life and work serves as the intellectual pillars of the school and that his spirit continues to inspire students and faculty.

"Josef Korbel opened a world to me that I would never have known," former Secretary of State Rice said in a speech in 2007. Indeed, today, the Josef Korbel School continues the work of its namesake and founder: offering a broad intellectual approach to the study of international affairs to practical idealists committed to the common good of an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world.

Ascending Reputation

The strategic initiatives implemented over the past five decades have helped establish the Josef Korbel School globally as a premier educational institution. A 2012 survey conducted by the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) Project, a part of The Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations at the College of William and Mary, ranked our master degrees #11 in the world for graduate programs in international affairs. The survey results confirm that the school has faculty and innovative programs that are recognized by leading U.S. academics as excellent.

The recent prominence of graduates on the world stage has also contributed to the school's ascending reputation. Those graduates include former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; retired U.S. Army General George Casey the 38th chief of staff of the U.S. Army and former commander of the Multi-National Force-Iraq; Heraldo Munoz, Chile's ambassador to the United Nations; and former Iranian ambassador to the U.N., Javad Zarif.