Zbigniew Brzezinski is a Polish-American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman. He served President Jimmy Carter as National Security Advisor (1977-81). Major foreign policy events during his office included: the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China (and severing of ties with the Republic of China on Taiwan); the signing of the SALT II arms control treaty; the brokering of the Camp David Accords; the transition of Iran to an anti-Western Islamic state (the "loss" of Iran); encouraging reform in Eastern Europe; emphasizing human rights in U.S. foreign policy; and arming mujaheddin in Afghanistan to prompt, and then to counter, a Soviet invasion.

Brzezinski obtained his BA and MA degrees from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and his doctorate in 1953 from Harvard. Brzezinski was on the faculty of Harvard University from 1953 to 1960, and of Columbia University from 1960 to 1989, where he headed up the Institute on Communist Affairs. As a scholar he has developed his thoughts over the years, fashioning fundamental theories on international relations and geostrategy.

He is currently a professor of American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a member of various boards and councils. He appears frequently as an expert on the PBS program "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer".

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