It is with deep sadness that we report the passing of our friend and colleague Arnold Kanter on April 10, 2010, at the all-too-young age of 65. He died from acute myelogenous leukemia, diagnosed in 2007.
Arnie trained as an academic political scientist, earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan (1965) and his M.Phil. (1968) and Ph.D. (1975) at Yale. But his exemplary career as a teacher, public servant, policy analyst, and statesman provides an impressive demonstration of the diverse endeavors to which that training can profitably be applied.
His career began in academic fashion, with two years as a Brookings Fellow (1969–71), a year as a lecturer in the department of political science at Ohio State, and a stint as an assistant professor with joint appointments at the Institute of Public Policy Studies and the department of political science at the University of Michigan until 1977. During this early period, he published his dissertation as Defense Politics: A Budgetary Perspective; co-edited with Morton H. Halperin the 1973 volume Readings in American Foreign Policy: A Bureaucratic Perspective; and assisted on Halperin's seminal Bureaucratic Politics & Foreign Policy (1974), a book that remains a classic today, having been revised in a second edition in 2006. He continued to write and publish journal articles and op-ed essays throughout his life.
It was in 1977 that academic political science suffered a loss, while government and the public interest scored a major gain. Arnie accepted a position in the Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, serving as a Council on Foreign Relations Fellow as a mid-level analyst, followed very quickly by promotion to Deputy Office Director in that bureau. He soon realized that the structure and sometimes frustrating operating requirements of the bureaucracy can also present great opportunities to those who learn to navigate them and to turn the characteristics and peculiarities of government to their advantage. His academic training in bureaucratic politics no doubt helped him to do just that. One of us observed him close at hand during this period and saw him become one of the best bureaucratic operatives ever, without sacrificing his strengths as a policy analyst. It is very difficult to carry out both functions equally well, but he easily managed to do so. Arnie's talents were soon recognized, and within eight years, he was asked to take on important assignments as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, and as a senior aide to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Lawrence Eagleburger.
In 1985, he left government for the RAND Corporation, where he served first as associate director of the International Security and Defense Program, and then as director of the National Security Strategies Program. In 1989, he returned to government as Senior Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control on Brent Scowcroft's National Security Council staff, an assignment that carried with it the title of Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In 1991, Secretary of State James Baker brought him back to the Department as Under Secretary for Political Affairs, the department's third-ranking position. In that capacity, he was largely responsible for the day-to-day management of U.S. foreign policy. In 1992 and early 1993, after Secretary Baker departed the State Department for the White House and Larry Eagleburger, as the Deputy Secretary, acted as Secretary and ultimately was named Secretary on a recess appointment, Kanter was sometimes called upon to carry out the Deputy Secretary's responsibilities, and even those of the Secretary when Eagleburger was absent. During his two tours at State and with the NSC, he was a primary participant in developing and negotiating the SALT I and SALT II treaties, and in other arms control negotiations involving the USSR and North Korea.
The ultimate stage of his varied career began in 1993, when he became a founding member of the Scowcroft Group, an international investment advisory firm, at which he specialized in guiding firms seeking business opportunities in China and Russia. He continued in this capacity for the rest of his life.
Leaving government did not mean the end of Arnie's deep commitment to public service. He belonged to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the Aspen Strategy Group, and he was a member and director of the Atlantic Council of the United States. He served as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from 2001–05, and on several presidential advisory groups, panels, and commissions. He also advised the director of the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the Department of Defense.
The positions he held and the work he did does not capture the essence of Arnie Kanter. Fred Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, characterized him as a “brilliant, kind, provocative, incisive, humorous, demanding, helpful, irreverent thinker and actor.” His Scowcroft Group colleagues Brent Scowcroft, Ginny Mulberger, and Eric Melby called him “a totally engaged, brilliant strategic thinker, one of the quiet but true national treasures and … the kindest and most loyal of friends.” And CIA Director Leon Panetta said he was “one of America's brightest minds on intelligence and foreign policy.” We concur. But for the signers of this memorial, who knew him first as “Young Arnold” when we all started graduate school together in 1966 and 1967, what was most impressive was that, except for a few pounds here and there, he always remained exactly the same funny, helpful, irascible, down-to-earth friend we knew as young graduate students. We never heard from him about the high positions he attained or the important men in government who became his champions and relied heavily on his counsel. More than one of us benefited directly from his help and advice, yet he never begrudged us the time this required from his busy schedule. Nor could one easily know of personal tragedies he and his wife endured, most notably the loss of a son in infancy. Whatever adversity Arnie encountered, he carried on positively and with great good will.
Arnold Kanter is survived by his wife of 40 years, Anne Strassman Kanter of McLean, Virginia, and two children, Clare Kanter of New York City and Noah Kanter of Washington, D.C., as well as his brother Robert.
Lawrence Eagleburger and Brent Scowcroft met Arnie long after we did. Not part of our graduate school group, they did not join us in writing this statement. But they wish to be associated with the sentiments we express.
