Theodore Couloumbis, international relations expert and think-tank mainstay, dies

Professor Theodore Couloumbis, a renowned political scientist and international relations scholar, has died. He was 87.

Couloumbis, professor emeritus of international relations at the University of Athens, was also known for his long association with the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), an Athens-based think tank established in 1988. Recently, he was made a member of ELIAMEP’s Honorary Committee, after serving for several years on its board of directors, including a term as its president (1993-95) and several years as its director general (1998-2006).

Born in Thessaloniki in 1935, Couloumbis earned a BA in Political Science (1956) and an MA in International Relations (1958), both from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD in International Relations from American University  (1963).

From 1965 to 1983, Couloumbis was professor of international relations at American University’s School of International Service in Washington, DC, where he received several awards for outstanding teaching. From 1983 to 1989 he was professor of international relations at the University of Thessaloniki’s Law School, moving to the University of Athens early in 1990.

In 1995-96 he was a senior fellow with the United States Institute of Peace and in 2006-07 a policy scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Couloumbis also attended meetings, as an expert, at the Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Policy National Council, from its founding in 2003 to 2006.

His work focused on conflict resolution in the post-Cold War international setting and on aspects of Greek foreign policy. He is co-author (with James H. Wolfe) of a well-known text book, “International Relations: Power and Justice” (Prentice Hall, 4th ed. 1990), author of “US, Greece and Turkey: The Troubled Triangle” (Praeger, 1983) and co-editor of the Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies”(Frank Cass and ELIAMEP). His also wrote “The Greek Junta Phenomenon” (Pella, 2004) and co-edited a volume, “Greece in the 20th Century” (Frank Cass, 2005).

Couloumbis, an active public scholar, was also a frequent contributor to Kathimerini.