2008 Woodie Awards
Holt Spotlight Interview: Professor of Political Science, Robert L. Bledsoe, Ph.D.
Get to know one of the nation's wittiest experts on International Law.
Jean Bernard Chery
Issue date: 10/28/05 Section: Holt News
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His record is a combination of great success: academic, nonacademic, and publications including a dictionary. For, he is so quiet and sage that many could only get a glimpse of his wittiness by having a short conversation with him. Bledsoe is a political science professor in the evening program at Rollins. He teaches international law or law of nations and international environmental law.
Professor Bledsoe earned his BA in 1961 from Marshall University and respectively his MA and Ph.D. in 1962 and 1971 from University of Florida. His specializations are: International Law, Space Law, International Environmental Law, American Foreign Policy, National Security Policy, and International Relations. He has done extensive research in the fields of International Law, Military Budget Process, and Defense Policy Issues.
In 1966, Professor Bledsoe began teaching as a graduate student-instructor at the University of Florida. In 1967, he accepted his first full tenure teaching position at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and a year later became a charter member of the FTU faculty at the University of Central Florida where he was honored in 2003 as Professor Emeritus.
He has been with the University since 1968, with the exception of a teaching semester with the University of Pittsburgh's Semester at Sea program and a year-long government fellowship with the US General Accounting Office advising them on transnational weapons co-production programs. He also served as an Intelligence Officer from 1963 to 1964 at the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Besides teaching, Professor Bledsoe served at many administrative positions at the University: Interim Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, College of Arts and Sciences from 2001 to 2002, Acting Director of Asian Studies Program from 1998 to 2001, Interim Chair of Department of Anthropology and Sociology from 1995 to 1996, Chair of the Political Science Department from 1993 to 2001, College Pre-Law Advisor from 1985 to 1993, and Director of the International Studies Center from 1980 to 1984.
In 1985, Professor Robert L. Bledsoe in collaboration with Joan Johnson-Freese and David B. Slaughter wrote and published Legal Research Handbook, a student guide to doing legal research from an undergraduate academic perspective. In 1987, he and Boleslaw A. Boczek co-authored The International Law Dictionary, a part of the Clio Dictionaries in Political Science series. These two books are highly regarded in the academia. His works have been published in scholarly journals, such as, The Political Chronicle; Journalism Quarterly; Armed Forces and Society; Air University Review; and The Journal of Strategic Studies.