Ralph Begleiter is the University of Delaware's "Distinguished Journalist in Residence," teaching Communication, Political Science and Journalism. He joined the faculty in July, 1999, bringing more than 30 years of broadcast journalism experience to classrooms for students interested in international affairs and broadcast journalism. He directs the university's annual "Global Agenda" speaker series on international issues.

At Delaware, Begleiter teaches undergraduate courses in "Broadcast News," "History of TV News Documentary," "Broadcast News Documentary," "Global Media & International Politics," and special courses such as a study abroad program in Antarctica in photojournalism and geopolitics (2003, 2005) and "Road to the Presidency" during election years. In 2006, his "Global Agenda" class met weekly by videoconference with students in Beirut, Lebanon to discuss cross-cultural and media issues. In 2002 he took UD students to Cuba for the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Begleiter also is program host on the Foreign Policy Association public television series "Great Decisions," broadcast on many PBS stations from 2001 to 2004 and again in 2006.

At the invitation of the U.S. Department of State, Begleiter has taught journalists in Jordan, Syria and Taiwan. He has also addressed journalists in many other countries and in Washington has helped train U.S. career diplomats studying public affairs issues at the State department's Foreign Service Institute. Begleiter has also taught on media and foreign policy at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and at Princeton University. He has served as a faculty member and resource specialist at a Salzburg Seminar session on "Mass Media in the Age of Globalization."

He regularly speaks to civic and community organizations, international affairs groups worldwide, including World Affairs Councils, the National Defense University, the Freedom Forum, Britain's Royal College of Defense Studies, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, U.S. Air War College, U.S. Naval War College, U.S. Army War College and embassy policy groups.

For almost two decades, Begleiter was CNN's World Affairs Correspondent based in the network's Washington Bureau, writing and producing thousands of news reports and programs aired worldwide. He joined CNN in 1981. In 1994, he conceived and began hosting the weekly "Global View" program, a public affairs discussion of international issues seen worldwide on CNN International. He also hosted CNN's "International Hour," seen worldwide.

Among his CNN assignments, Begleiter developed and hosted "Cold War Postscript," a 24-part weekly program examining connections between the history of the Cold War and global affairs in today's world. In 1999, Begleiter broadcast "live" from the funeral for Jordan's King Hussein in Amman, as he did from Jerusalem in 1995 after the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In 1997, Begleiter reported "live" from the Hong Kong/China border as Chinese troops arrived for the handover from Britain. In 1996, he hosted coverage of the "Summit of Peacemakers" from Egypt's Sinai Desert and contributed to CNN's awarding winning coverage of the Russian Presidential elections.

Begleiter was CNN's most widely traveled Correspondent. He has flown almost two million miles and visited 94 countries on six continents. His CNN travels with U.S. Secretaries of State and Presidents included visits to many areas of the then Soviet Union, and to all of the now independent states of the former USSR. Begleiter has also traveled extensively in Asia (including China, Vietnam, Mongolia, Japan and Korea), the Middle East (including Israel and most Arab nations) and Europe and made less expansive trips to Latin America and Africa.

In 1994, Georgetown University's Graduate School of Foreign Service awarded Begleiter its Weintal Prize, one of diplomatic reporting's highest honors. He was named as a contributor to CNN's award-winning coverage of major global events, including the Gulf War (1991).

In August 1990, Begleiter became the first and only Western news correspondent ever to accompany a Soviet Foreign Minister, then Eduard Shevardnadze, interviewing Shevardnadze aboard his aircraft. He covered virtually every high-level Soviet-American meeting between 1983 and 1999.

Before joining CNN, Begleiter reported for WTOP AM-TV in Washington, D.C. He began his broadcast journalism career in 1967 in Providence, Rhode Island, where he worked as a reporter and writer for WICE-AM and WJAR AM-TV, and served as News Director for WBRU-FM.