Brzezinski, Zbigniew Kazimierz, 1928-, American political scientist and public official, b. Warsaw, Poland, grad. Harvard (Ph.D, 1953). The son of a diplomat, he was raised in Canada and became (1958) a U.S. citizen. A professor of international relations at Harvard (1953-60), Columbia (1960-89), and Johns Hopkins Univ. (1989-), he was a Soviet specialist and proved to be an influential voice regarding political affairs in the Communist world. As President Carter's national security adviser (1977-81), he advocated a hard line toward the USSR. In 1981 he resumed his academic career, writing extensively on U.S. strategic relations, the collapse of Communism, and America's security challenges. His books include Ideology and Power in Soviet Politics (1962, repr., 1976), Between Two Ages (1970, repr. 1982), The Grand Failure (1989), The Grand Chessboard (1997), The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership (2004), and Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower (2007).