Nicholas J. Spykman

Nicholas John Spykman (pronounced "Speak-man", October 13, 1893 – June 26, 1943) was an American political scientist who was Professor of International Relations at Yale University from 1928 until his death in 1943. He was one of the founders of the classical realist school in American foreign policy, transmitting Eastern European political thought to the United States.

His work on geopolitics and geostrategy led him to be to known as the "godfather of containment." A Sterling Professor of International Relations, teaching as part of the Institute for International Studies at Yale University, one of his prime concerns was making his students geographically literate, as geopolitics was impossible without geographic understanding.