A. Ross Johnson
Research Fellow

Expertise: Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, international broadcasting, international security, Eastern Europe and Balkans

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A. Ross Johnson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, adviser to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Archive Project at Hoover, senior adviser to the president of RFE/RL, and senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Johnson was a senior executive of RFE/RL from 1988 to 2002, serving as director of Radio Free Europe, director of the RFE/RL Research Institute, and acting president and counselor of RFE/RL. He was a senior staff member of the RAND Corporation from 1969 to 1988, where he specialized in East European and Soviet security issues. He was a visiting RAND research fellow at the Foundation for Science and Politics, Germany, in 1983–85.

In recognition of his contribution in preserving the archives of the RFE/RL Polish service, Johnson received the Laurel Award from the prime minister of Poland in 2001 and a citation for Meritorious Service to Polish Culture from the Polish minister of culture in 1996.

His publications include Communicating with the World of Islam (Hoover Press, 2008); “To the Barricades,” Hoover Digest, no. 4 (2007); "Kosovo: Keeping the Lid On," Hoover Digest, No. 3 (2004); "Security and Insecurity in the Balkans," in Klaus Lange and Leonid L. Fituni, eds., Integrating Regional and Global Security Cooperation (Hanns Seidel Stiftung, 2002); East European Armed Forces and Soviet Military Planning; Factors of Change (RAND Corporation, 1989); Political Change and Dissent in Eastern Europe (RAND Corporation, 1987); East European Military Reliability: An Émigré-Based Assessment (RAND Corporation, 1986); and Political Leadership in Yugoslavia: Evolution of the League of Communists (RAND Corporation, 1983); he coauthored East European Military Establishments: The Warsaw Pact Northern Tier (Crane Russak, 1982); The Yugoslav Military Elite (RAND Corporation, 1977); and The Transformation of Communist Ideology, the Yugoslav Case, 1945–1953 (MIT Press, 1972).

Johnson received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1967. He earned an M.A. in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1962 and an A.B. with great distinction in international relations from Stanford University in 1961.