-
- Communication
Department
- 250 Pearson Hall
- Newark, DE 19716
(302) 831-2687
FAX
(302)831-1892
Office: Ralph.Begleiter@udel.edu
- Courses:
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RALPH
BEGLEITER
Distinguished Journalist in
Residence
University of
Delaware
Professional
Biography
-
- Ralph Begleiter is the
University of Delaware’s “Distinguished Journalist in
Residence,” teaching Communication, Political Science and
Journalism. He joined the faculty in July, 1999, bringing more
than 30 years of broadcast journalism experience to classrooms for
students interested in international affairs and broadcast
journalism.
-
- He holds an Honors B.A. in
political science from Brown
University and an
M.S. in Journalism from Columbia
University. He is a
Trustee of Brown University and an adviser to the
university’s public affairs offices, and to the alumni
magazine.
Begleiter also serves as a program host on the History
Channel’s new
international cable TV service.
He
is a Commissioner of the "RIAS
Berlin Commission," which encourages
German-American broadcast journalism and exchanges, and is a judge
for its annual broadcasting awards. (RIAS is the acronym for a
cold war era news service known as "Radio In the American Sector"
of then divided Berlin.)-
-
- At the invitation of the U.S. Department of
State, Begleiter has taught journalists in Amman, Jordan about the
concepts of "credibility and objectivity" in independent
journalism.
-
For
almost two decades, Begleiter was CNN’s World Affairs
Correspondent based in the network’s Washington Bureau. He
joined CNN in 1981, and took on the State Department assignment in
June, 1982. In 1994, after leaving the State Department, he
conceived and began hosting the weekly “Global
View” program,
a public affairs discussion of international issues seen worldwide
on CNN International.-
- In 1998-99, Begleiter developed
and hosted “Cold
War Postscript,”
a 24-part weekly program examining connections between the history
of the Cold War and global affairs in today’s world. From
1994-1995, he co-anchored CNN’s prestigious
“International Hour,” aired daily during prime time in
Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East and the United States.
Begleiter
was CNN’s most
widely-traveled Correspondent,
having flown almost 2-million miles around the world with
U-S Secretaries of State and Presidents since 1982. His travels
included visits to many areas of the then-Soviet Union, and to
all of the newly independent states of the former Soviet
Union. Begleiter has also traveled extensively in Asia (including
China, Vietnam, Mongolia, Japan and Korea), the Middle East, and
Europe, and made less expansive trips to Latin America and
Africa.
He
regularly anchored special reports and live coverage for
CNN
International, the
world’s premier international English-language non-government
news service. In 1999, Begleiter broadcast “live” from
the funeral for Jordan’s King Hussein in Amman, as he did
from Jerusalem in 1995 after the assassination of Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In 1997, Begleiter reported
“live” from the Hong Kong/China border as Chinese troops
arrived for the handover from Britain. Also in 1997, he traveled
to Vietnam to cover an historic conference among U.S. and
Vietnamese former officials reviewing “missed
opportunities” during the Vietnam War. A special report based
on that trip was broadcast in December, 1997. In 1996, he hosted
coverage of the “Summit of Peacemakers” from
Egypt’s Sinai Desert and contributed to CNN’s awarding
winning coverage of the Russian Presidential elections. In 1995,
Begleiter anchored CNNI’s live worldwide coverage of 50th
anniversary World War Two V-E Day events from Moscow, conclusion
of the Bosnia Accords from Dayton and the signing of the Accords
from Paris.
In 1994, Georgetown
University’s
Graduate School of Foreign Service awarded Begleiter its Weintal
Prize, one of diplomatic reporting’s highest honors.
During the Persian Gulf Crisis in 1990 and 1991, Begleiter
followed the delicate diplomatic construction of the unprecedented
international coalition which eventually went to war against
Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, reporting “live” from Geneva
on the dramatic collapse of diplomatic efforts to avoid the war
with a final Iraqi-American high-level meeting in January,
1991.
After the war, Begleiter covered the extraordinary Middle East
peace efforts by the United States. He played a key role in
CNN’s week-long live coverage of the historic Madrid Middle
East Peace Conference in 1991, providing viewers with a live
report from inside the conference chamber as Arab and Israeli
delegates mingled for the first time, and with continuing analysis
and interviews with the negotiators. He has interviewed major
Middle East leaders including Jordan’s King Hussein, several
Israeli Prime Ministers, Egyptian President Mubarak and Syrian
Foreign Minister Shara.
In August, 1990, Begleiter became the first and only Western news
correspondent to accompany a Soviet Foreign Minister, then Eduard
Shevardnadze, aboard Shevardnadze’s aircraft on an official
diplomatic mission. During the flight from Siberia to Moscow,
Begleiter conducted an unprecedented 90-minute interview,
exploring the background and policies of the Gorbachev regime with
one of Mr. Gorbachev’s closest personal advisers. It was the
last major interview given by Shevardnadze before his dramatic
resignation and condemnation of Gorbachev a few months later, and
the only one of its kind before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Begleiter covered virtually every high-level Soviet-American
meeting since 1983.
Throughout 1990, Begleiter covered the unfolding democratic
revolution in Eastern Europe and the unification of Germany,
including the signing of the German Unification Treaty in Moscow,
the birth of the “Open Skies” initiative in Ottawa and
the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty at the Paris Summit in
November.
He has interviewed many world leaders, among them British Prime
Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, German Chancellor
Helmut Kohl, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, Russian Prime
Minister Victor Chernomyrdin, several Russian Foreign Ministers,
Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and
French Presidents Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterrand and
French Prime Ministers Lionel Jospin and Alain Juppé.
Begleiter has also interviewed history-making world figures such
as South African President Nelson Mandela and Chinese dissident
Wei Jingsheng.
He has anchored extended live coverage of international affairs
special events, including much of the coverage of the
ground-breaking 1988 Soviet-American Summit in Moscow.
International arms control negotiations were among his specialties
while at CNN. Begleiter wrote and anchored an award-winning
documentary program on arms control issues (“Battle for
Peace”), which was broadcast in 1987 and 1988. He regularly
covered tensions on the Korean peninsula and efforts to negotiate
a settlement.
He has also covered the U-S national political conventions and has
served as an Election Night anchor for CNN and CNN International.
In 1981, he covered the U.S. Supreme Court and the trial of
presidential assailant John Hinckley in Washington.
Before joining CNN, Begleiter reported for WTOP
AM-TV in Washington,
D.C. Among his responsibilities there were the 1980 political
conventions and the capture and release of the American hostages
in Iran. He anchored special reports and award-winning
documentaries on medical care costs, school desegregation and the
abortive 1980 hostage rescue mission to Iran.
Begleiter began his broadcast journalism career in 1967 in
Providence, Rhode Island, where he worked as a reporter and writer
for WICE-AM and WJAR AM-TV, as well as serving as News Director
for WBRU-FM.
Other honors earned by Begleiter include awards from the National
Press Club (Hood Citation for Diplomatic Correspondence), the
National Academy for Cable Programming (“ACE” award),
the Houston International Film Festival (Gold Awards), the New
York Festivals International Competition for Television, Film and
Video Communication, the Associated Press and United Press
International. He regularly speaks to groups interested in
international affairs, including a variety of colleges and
universities, World Affairs Councils, the National Defense
University in Washington, the U.S. military academies and the
British Royal College of Defense Studies.
Begleiter was born in New York City. He lives in Newark, Delaware
with his wife, Barbara.-
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- Updated: February,
2000