Kurt R. Spillmann

Biography

Kurt R. Spillmann has been Full Professor of Security Studies and Conflict Research at the ETH Zurich and was given the title of Professor of Modern History, especially American History, at the University of Zurich. He retired on October 1, 2002. Prof. Spillmann was born in 1937 in Zurich. He studied history in Zurich, Rome, New Haven (Yale University) and qualified as lecturer at the University of Zurich in 1978. He has been a research fellow at Yale University, at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Washington D.C.), at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University (Washington D.C.), and at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. In 1986 he became a full professor at the ETH Zurich, at which time he founded the Center for Security Studies and Conflict Research, of which he is director. In 1997 he founded the Center for International Studies (CIS), of which he is managing director. From 1987-1995 he was chairman of the Department of Military Sciences. In the army he held the rank of colonel. He has published and edited many books and articles in the fields of American history, American security policy and foreign policy, Swiss security and conflict research. He is editor of the series Zürcher Beiträge zur Sicherheitspolitik und Konfliktforschung, organizer and editor of the lecture series Zeitgeschichtliche Hintergründe aktueller Konflikte, and editor of the Bulletin zur schweizerischen Sicherheitspolitik.

Research Interest

Modern History, Military Sciences.