(JTA) — Harvey Sicherman, the head of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a special assistant to the late Secretary of State Alexander Haig, has died.
Sicherman died Dec. 25 at the age of 65.
He was president of the research institute in Philadelphia from 1993 until his death after serving as associate director for research, a research associate and starting as a research assistant in the 1960s.
Sicherman met Haig at the institute and went with him to Washington when he became secretary of state under President Reagan. Sicherman served as Haig’s special assistant in 1981-82. It was the highest position in the U.S. government then held by an Orthodox Jew, the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent reported.
He later served as consultant to Navy Secretary John Lehman from 1982 to 1987, consultant to Secretary of State George Shultz from 1988 to 1990, and as a member of the policy planning staff of Secretary of State James Baker from 1991to 1992.
Under Sicherman’s leadership, the Foreign Policy Research Institute forged partnerships with think tanks in China, Taiwan, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Spain, Germany and Great Britain. Sicherman’s essays appear on the institute’s website. He also is the author of several books on foreign policy.
Sicherman earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971, two years after he began working at the research institute.
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