I was born in Budapest, Hungary. At the end of the failed Hungarian revolution in November of 1956, when I was nine years old, my parents fled with me, crossing into Austria amid flying bullets and the bodies of dead partisans. We then migrated to America, arriving in New York City on New Year’s Eve, 1957.
Our first full year in the USA was spent in Corpus Christi, Texas where I learned English with a Texas twang, which turned out to be of little when my parents packed up our meager belongings and drove an old Buick back to New York City, settling in the South Bronx where I learned a new English language along with how to navigate gangs and dangerous neighborhoods. As I finished middle school, my parents packed me up again and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan…or as my father said: “it is time for us to move to America.” There I acquired a Midwestern accent, tinged with a Bronx dialect and a Texas drawl.
We were unbelievably poor in those days but through luck, perseverance, incredible prodding by my mom and dad, the largesse of a US government that believed in providing educational opportunities, and a combination of loans, scholarships, fellowships and a variety of odd jobs, I became the first in my family to graduate from high school (Ottawa Hills, Grand Rapids), from college (Oakland University, Rochester Michigan), and went on to earn an MA and a PhD in Political Science (University of Minnesota).
From early on (when I was 13 I volunteered for John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in the South Bronx) and as many immigrants do, I came to understand the importance of democratic politics for improving the lives of Americans. That probably explains why I chose political science as my major and have had a life-long obsession with both the teaching and the practice of politics.
And I’ve been teaching, writing and researching about, and practicing politics ever since. The political science department at the University of Arizona in Tucson gave me my first intellectual home and my first real paycheck.
Tucson gave me my first real feeling that I was no longer on the run; for the first time in my life I felt I belonged. Tucson embraced me, and I came to love it for the real, vibrant, and warm community it was when I got here and as it so remains to this day.
And I’ve been blessed with enormous opportunities to contribute to the world around us.
I’ve taught thousands of undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom became good friends, and some as colleagues.
I ran for elected office and served for fourteen years, first on the city council and then as mayor of Tucson.
I served in leadership capacities with the National League of Cities and the US Conference of Mayors.
I negotiated federal legislation with the US Congress.
I was chosen to help oversee the first democratic national elections in Hungary after the fall of the Berlin wall.
Through USAID, the State Department, and the National Democratic Institute, I worked in Central Asia, Russia, Eastern Europe and Latin America training elected officials, administrators and activists in democratic processes and public policy development.
I advised on the development of international relations PhD programs in Russia, Morocco, and Hungary.
I served as an “expert”/”talking head” for many hundreds of interviews with local, national and international print and television/cable/social media news programs.
For twenty years I was the executive director of the International Studies Association, running an organization that still remains as the primary global umbrella for international relations scholars, with members from over 100 nations.
I ran a consulting business (Magellan International) that worked on trade issues, political consulting, survey research, and jury selection.
And I’ve been fortunate to publish, so far authoring and co-authoring nine books and over sixty articles in refereed social science journals. These cover a broad variety of areas, focusing on international politics, the politics of world regions, conflict and cooperation dynamics, US and comparative foreign policy, international organizations, and side ventures into domestic public policy, domestic political processes along with studies of mass media's impact on political socialization, and the effects of gender on politics.
Today, I continue to do research, publish, work with colleagues and present and former graduate students, and stay active around various projects in Tucson.
Most important, I am surrounded by the best loving family anyone could hope for, and enjoy the pleasure of wonderful friendships.