Michael Haltzel

Senior Fellow

Michael Haltzel is Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.  Dr. Haltzel capped a distinguished career in public service as senior foreign policy advisor (1994-2005) to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-Delaware), Ranking Member (Chairman 2001-03) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as Democratic Staff Director of the Subcommittee on European Affairs of the Committee.  He was the lead Democratic Senate staffer on NATO and Balkan policy and, as such, was deeply involved in two rounds of NATO enlargement (1998; 2004) and in the Bosnia and Kosovo campaigns.  He held a TS/SCI security clearance.   In September/October 2009 he returned temporarily to government service as Head of the U.S. Delegation to the annual two-week, 56-nation OSCE Human Rights Conference in Warsaw.

Dr. Haltzel went to the Senate in 1994 from the Library of Congress, where he was Chief of the European Division, supervising a staff of twenty-five librarians and area specialists.  From 1985 to 1992, he served as Director of West European Studies of the Woodrow Wilson Center at the Smithsonian Institution.  He previously taught Russian and German History at Hamilton College (New York) and was Vice President for Academic Affairs at Longwood College (Virginia) where he was responsible for a multi-million dollar budget and supervised a faculty of 160 and a staff of several hundred.  In 1975-78, Dr. Haltzel helped launch the Aspen Institute Berlin as its first Deputy Director.  The author of Der Abbau der deutschen ständischen Selbstverwaltung in den Ostseeprovinzen Russlands 1855-1905 (Marburg, 1977), he is also coauthor, editor, or coeditor of nine other books and is a frequent contributor to American and European newspapers, journals, and the electronic media.

In 1990, Dr. Haltzel was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Copenhagen CSCE Conference; in 1991 a Guest Professor at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Ebenhausen, Germany); in September 1996 an OSCE monitor for the first post-war elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and in July 2004 a member of the U.S. delegation to the inauguration of Serbian President Boris Tadić.  In May 2000 he spoke on trans-Atlantic security affairs at the Assemblée Nationale in Paris, in November 2005 he addressed the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Copenhagen, in October 2006 he spoke on U.S. foreign policy at the Deutscher Bundestag, in March 2008 he testified on NATO enlargement before the U.S. Congress, and in May 2009 he spoke to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna.

A member of the Board of Trustees of the World Affairs Council of Washington, DC and of the Boards of Advisors of the European Institute, the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, and Our Military Kids, Dr. Haltzel is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the Council's Board Committee on Washington Programs. In 1992-93 he chaired the Council's study group on nationalities and ethnic conflict in Europe.  Dr. Haltzel is also a member of the Cosmos Club and of the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Haltzel has been decorated by seven countries of the European Union:  the Grand Cross of Commander of the Order of Grand Duke Gediminas by Lithuania, the Star of Romania by Romania, the Knighthood of the Royal Order of the Polar Star by Sweden, the Officer's Cross Order of Merit by Hungary, the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver by Austria, the Order of the Three Stars by Latvia, and the Knighthood of the Order of the Lion of Finland by Finland.  His biographic listings have included Who's Who in America.

He received a B.A. magna cum laude with honors in history from Yale, an M.A. in Soviet Studies and a Ph.D. in history, both from Harvard, and also studied in Berlin, Marburg, and Helsinki.  He speaks German and Russian.

Dr. Haltzel is married to the former Helen Scull Hitchman.  They have two married children and three grandchildren.

Contact Information:
Email: mhaltzel@jhu.edu
Phone: 202.587.3236