Background
Asmus was born to a family of German immigrants who came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin after World World War World War II He grew up in Milwaukee and Mequon, Wisconsin graduating from Homestead High School.
Asmus was born to a family of German immigrants who came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin after World World War World War II He grew up in Milwaukee and Mequon, Wisconsin graduating from Homestead High School.
University of Wisconsin–Madison. Johns Hopkins University.
Asmus was an early and strong proponent of expanding North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Eastern Europe. He was United States. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs in the Clinton Administration from 1997 to 2000. He played an important role in the 1999 Washington summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, when Poland, the Czechoslovakian Republic and Hungary joined the Alliance.
He was also a senior analyst and fellow at Radio Free Europe, Research and Development and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Foreign his diplomatic work, Asmus was decorated by the United States Department of State and the governments of Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden. He was the Executive Director of the Brussels-based Transatlantic Center and was also responsible for strategic planning at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Asmus authored Opening North Atlantic Treaty Organization"s Door: How the Alliance Remade Itself for a New Era (Columbia, 2002), about the push to open North Atlantic Treaty Organization to Eastern European countries, and A Little War that Shook the World (Palgrave Macmillan, January 2010), about the conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008. Asmus died of a lung cancer-related illness in Brussels on April 30, 2011.
The United States. Department of State, governments of the Baltic states and Georgia expressed their condolences over the death of Asmus.
Asmus held a Doctor of Philosophy in European Studies, a Master’s degree in Soviet and East European studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Being one of the most persistent advocates for the integration of Georgia into the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Asmus viewed the conflict in terms of a larger Russia–West relations and argued that it was Georgian independence, and its Westward orientation, which angered Russia and set the groundwork for war.
He, as United States. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (1997–2000), was instrumental in the expansion of North Atlantic Treaty Organization to include former members of the Eastern bloc and acted as a leading policy designer in the United States.–Europe relations.