Robert A. Belfer International Affairs Fellowship in European Security

The Robert A. Belfer International Affairs Fellowship (IAF) in European Security was established in 2023 to strengthen mutual understanding and cooperation between rising generations of leaders and thinkers in Europe and the United States. The program enables mid-career U.S. professionals to spend up to twelve months conducting research and working in Europe at a think tank, university, government agency, or international organization on issues pertaining to European security. For more information about applying, please click here.

Robert A. Belfer

Born in Poland in 1935, Robert A. Belfer is an American businessman and philanthropist.

After graduating from Columbia College and Harvard Law School, Belfer served as President and then Chairman of the Fortune 500 company Belco Petroleum Corp (NYSE). Following the merger of Belco Petroleum, he founded Belco Oil & Gas Corp (NYSE), where he served as Chairman and CEO. After the merger of Belco Oil & Gas, Belfer co-founded Belfer Management LLC, a diversified family investment firm, with his son, Laurence Belfer. He served as Chairman until his retirement in 2022.

As a philanthropist, Belfer endowed the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, which for years was ranked the #1 university-affiliated think tank in the world, and previously served on the Dean’s Executive Board. At Columbia University, Belfer endowed the Belfer Professor of International Relations. For many years, Belfer was actively involved at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Belfer was heavily involved with medical research and served as Chair of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (where the Belfer family had established the Belfer Institute for Advanced Biomedical Studies); Vice Chair of Weill Cornell Medicine (where he provided funding for the Belfer Research Building); Board member at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (where he established the Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science) and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation; and established the Belfer Neurodegenerative Consortium at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Belfer also was a long-time Board member of the American Jewish Committee.

For his business and philanthropic contributions, Belfer received the Presidential Recognition Award for Outstanding Community Service from President Reagan in 1987. In 2016, he was honored by the Business Executives for National Security (BENS) with the Eisenhower Award alongside Ash Carter, then U.S. Secretary of Defense. The Eisenhower Award acknowledges contributions by private citizens and public servants who safeguard our freedom and, as put by President Eisenhower, the balance “between the actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future.”

Robert A. Belfer International Affairs Fellows in European Security

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