Robert A. Vitas Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, USA

Dr. Robert A. Vitas, IUS Executive Director, is Chairman of the Board of the Lithuanian Research and Studies Center (LRSC). Operating in Chicago, the LRSC is the largest scholarly-level archive and publisher on all aspects of Lithuanian studies outside Lithuania. The LRSC regularly hosts students and researchers from around the world who are conducting their studies and preparing publications. It collaborates with academic institutions in Lithuania and elsewhere, along with the Lithuanian Government. The LRSC was privileged to be visited by then-president Algirdas Brazauskas in 1997.

Dr. Vitas has published The United States and Lithuania: The Stimson Doctrine of Nonrecognition, Civil-Military Relations in Lithuania Under President Antanas Smetona 1926-1940, and two volumes of U.S. National Security Policy and Strategy: Documents and Policy Proposals, co-edited with Sam C. Sarkesian and John Allen Williams. His other publications include over two dozen scholarly articles, book chapters and book reviews. One of his articles published by the US Army Command and General Staff College was translated by the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense for use in officer education.

He earned his Ph.D. at Loyola University Chicago and served as a Visiting Scholar at Northwestern University from 1995 until 2009. He served as an enlisted man and commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve where, among other assignments, he was a liaison to troops from the Lithuanian Army during early NATO Partnership for Peace exercises.