Becoming American: Why Immigration Is Good for Our Nation's Future by Fariborz Ghadar

have existed gradually receded.” 8
    By the 1980s, Brzezinski argued that the general crisis of the Soviet Union foreshadowed communism’s end. In 1981, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in the normalization of U.S.-China relations and for his contributions to the human rights and national security policies of the United States.
    As a scholar, he has developed his thoughts over the years, fashioning fundamental theories on international relations and geostrategy. During the 1950s, he worked on the theory of totalitarianism. His thoughts in the 1960s focused on a wider Western understanding of disunity in the Soviet Bloc, and he developed the thesis of intensified degeneration of the Soviet Union. During the 1970s, he propounded the proposition that the Soviet system was incapable of evolving beyond the industrial phase into the “technetronic” age.
    He is currently a professor of American Foreign Policy at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a counselor and trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, both located in Washington, D.C.
    His younger brother, Lech Brzezinski, continues to live in Montreal, where he works as the head of a large engineering company. Lech’s wife, Wanda (also from Poland), has a medical practice. Lech and Wanda’s oldest child, Matthew, a newspaper reporter, spent two years in Poland and has been a reporter for the Wall Street Journal . He has written some controversial and interesting articles as well as a book on the Wild West of capitalism in post–Soviet Russia.
    Like their father and grandfather before them, Brzezinski’s children have gone on to achieve much in the realm of political influence and discourse. Their oldest son, Ian, having spent almost two years in Ukraine as a volunteer, helped the Ukrainians with their national security problems. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO and was a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton. He is a Senior Fellow in the International Security Program and is on the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Advisors Group. Key highlights of his tenure as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy (2001–2005) include the expansion of NATO membership in 2004, the consolidation and reconfiguration of the Alliance’s command structure, the standing up of the NATO Response Force, and the coordination of European military contributions to U.S.- and NATO-led operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans.
    Brzezinski’s second son, Mark, spent two years in Poland as a Fulbright scholar, both studying and occasionally teaching at Warsaw University. He then went to Oxford, where he completed a doctorate, focusing on the introduction of constitutionalism into Polish democracy. He became a lawyer who served on President Clinton’s National Security Council as an expert on Russia and Southeastern Europe and was a partner in McGuire Woods LLP. He now serves as the U.S. ambassador to Sweden.
    His daughter, Mika, is a television news presenter and cohost of MSNBC’s weekday morning program, Morning Joe , where she provides regular commentary and presents the news headlines for the program. She appears under her maiden name and is often invited by Polish American communities to speak on special occasions.
    The effects of Brzezinski’s immigration to the United States has provided this country with an immeasurable repository of knowledge, insight, and career dedication to the furtherance of our standing, interactions, and influence in the global community. His Polish heritage combined with his diverse upbringing helped to shape his goals, which truly contributed to a more just international system. Brzezinski’s children continue his contribution to the country. They, too, have not forgotten their Polish background, as can be seen in their work. We cannot begin to quantify the legacy his family has made in modern