Donald S. Zagoria, one of the Political Science Department’s most distinguished scholars, who taught at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center for 40 years, died on September 16 at his home in Crugers, New York. He was 97.
Zagoria was the author or editor of four books, including the landmark Sino-Soviet Conflict, 1956-1961, published by Princeton University Press, and wrote more than 300 articles, including in the field’s leading journal, American Political Science Review.
A noted foreign policy expert on China and its relations with its neighbors and the United States, Zagoria served as a consultant to the administration of President Jimmy Carter, worked for the RAND Corporation, and contributed many policy articles to publications such as Foreign Affairs, Public Affairs, and Asian Survey.
Arriving at Hunter in 1968 after a stint at Columbia University, Zagoria taught courses on American foreign policy, major powers, and the international relations of Asia until he retired in 2008.
Cynthia Roberts, a professor of political science and former director of Hunter’s Russian and East European Area Studies Program, fondly remembers Zagoria as a warm-hearted and generous mentor who recruited her to teach while still a Columbia graduate student and invited her to participate in countless meetings with visiting international delegations.
“Don was widely respected not only for his scholarship but also for advocating pragmatism in foreign policy,” she said. “He put Hunter on the map in China, Taiwan, Korea, and in the U.S. foreign policy establishment.”
In addition to his scholarship and teaching, Zagoria was the founder of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. He convened regular Track II dialogues on U.S.-China and cross-Taiwan Strait relations to produce policy recommendations that held the greatest prospect for peaceful solutions.
Susan Elliott, the president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, where Zagoria served as senior vice president, said that he had made a significant impact on the committee’s work.
“Every time we talked to people in Asia, they always asked about him and wanted us to send him their regards. He was a legend,” she said.
Sought after for his knowledge, he was a frequent guest for television interviews in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s on programs such as William F. Buckley’s Firing Line and The MacNeil/Lehrer News Report. Zagoria’s contemporaries and colleagues included Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Winston Lord.
Zagoria also made an enduring impact on his students, encouraging them to consider public service in diplomacy and advocating for them as they pursued their careers.
Zagoria earned his BA in 1948 from Rutgers University, where he had planned for a career in journalism before becoming interested in the rising importance of China in the Cold War. After graduating, he worked in Washington, D.C., at the Foreign Broadcast Information Service as an analyst of Russian and Chinese media. He moved to the Rand Corporation, and then to the Research Institute for Communist Affairs, where he first worked with Brezinski. He earned his PhD from Columbia University in 1963.
Zagoria was predeceased by his wife, Janet Dorsch Zagoria, who died in 2017. Zagoria is survived by his son Adam, a sports journalist and filmmaker; his daughter-in-law, Jennifer Barton, a public relations executive; his two grandchildren, Grace and James Zagoria; and his two nieces, Kim and Lee Taylor of California.
A devoted New York Yankees fan, thanks to Adam, Zagoria received annual birthday shout-outs from Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay. The last one came during a Yankees-Red Sox game in late August 2025, celebrating Zagoria’s 97th birthday.
