Robert Bell

Robert G. Bell spent a lifetime in public service. He served in the U.S. Air Force, worked on defense and nuclear policy at the White House, served as a civilian official with NATO and on the Senate Committees on Foreign relations and Armed Services, and then brought all of his experience to bear as a professor of the practice in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. 

A central figure in the post-Cold War effort to control the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Bell tracked Iraqi compliance with U.N.-mandated weapons inspections following the first Gulf War, closely followed North Korea’s growing ICBM program, and worked to win ratification of an arms control agreement with Russia.

Through it all, he brought a pragmatic approach to international security issues that served him well as a presidential aid, a NATO official, a consultant, and, ultimately, a distinguished professor of the practice in the Nunn School. 

“The debates have become much more partisan, and the choices tend to be articulated in much more extreme black or white terms than I think the truth supports,” Bell told Air and Space Forces Magazine for a 1999 profile. “Usually, the decisions are quite tough and there is merit on both sides. The challenge is to get it right in a way that balances competing interests.”

Bell passed away suddenly in September 2024, leaving behind a lifetime legacy of public service. He was buried in Academy Cemetery at the U.S. Air Force Academy, from which he graduated in 1969. 

Read the full article "Honoring the Legacy of Robert Bell: Diplomat, Scholar, and Leader"