Papers of Karl Wolfgang Deutsch

Karl Wolfgang Deutsch (1912-1992), a social and political scientist, was the Stanfield Professor of International Peace at Harvard University. His work focused on the study of war and peace, nationalism, international co-operation, and communication. Deutsch introduced quantitative methods and formal system analysis and model-thinking into the field of social and political sciences.

Deutsch was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). He graduated from the German University of Prague in 1934 and from Charles University in 1938. Between degrees, Deutsch studied optics in England for two years. His study of math and physics was partly responsible for his later usage of quantitative data in political science. As a student, Deutsch was a leader in the German Student Movement, which fought Nazism in the 1930s. In 1938, Deutsch and his wife Ruth (married 1936) came to the United States for a temporary stay to request support against the Nazis. Advised by Czech authorities not to return to Europe, Deutsch stayed in the United States. During World War II, Deutsch worked for the Office of Strategic Services and in 1945 participated in the San Francisco Conference that created the United Nations Organization. In 1951, Deutsch received his PhD in government from Harvard University.

From 1942 to 1958, Deutsch taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then held a position at Yale University from 1958 to 1967 and was a Professor of Government at Harvard University from 1967 to 1971, when he was named Stanfield Professor of International Peace. He retired in 1985.

Deutsch wrote and edited works covering a wide range of social science topics including arms control, communication theory, comparative government, computer modeling, cybernetics, nationalism, population issues, the German and Swiss governments, and world trade. He initiated the use of quantitative data in social science research. Some of his best known works are: The Nerves of Government (1963), Arms Control and the Atlantic Alliance (1967), The Analysis of International Relations (1968), Nationalism and Its Alternatives (1969), Nationalism and Social Communication (1953), Politics and Government: How People Decide Their Fate (1970), and Tides Among Nations (1979).

Deutsch was a member of many organizations. He was a Fellow and Council Member in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the 1950s, President of the New England Political Science Association from 1965 to 1966, President of the American Political Science Association from 1969 to 1970, President of the International Political Science Association from 1976 to 1979, and co-director of the International Institute of Comparative Social Research at the Science Center, Berlin from 1977 to 1987. In the early 1980s, the Center created GLOBUS, a computerized simulator of worldwide developments. Deutsch also served as a presidential fellow at the Carter Center for International Peace from 1985 to 1989. Deutsch received the In Medias Res award in 1979 and West Germany's (now the Federal Republic of Germany) Decorated Grand Cross of Merit in 1977.

Deutsch was married for fifty-six years to his wife Ruth and had two daughters, Mary Edsall and Margaret Carroll.