During the war, Robert Bowie worked in the War Department. From 1945 he was involved in the development of the North Atlantic Alliance between United States and Western Europe. From April 1945 until March 1946, he was based in Germany as the personal assistant to General Clay, the Military Governor in occupied Germany. On his return to the US he took up a professorship in law at Harvard University. From January 1950 through the end of 1951, he was Germany with the US High Commissioner as his legal adviser. Under McCloy’s supervision, Bowie drafted the anti-cartel legislation that dismantled the German coal and steel monopolies in the Ruhr. In 1952 Bowie returned to Harvard and continued his consultancy on the drafting of Western Germany’s Constitution. During this period, he was involved with the negotiations in Paris on the ECSC and the EDC. From May 1953 to August 1957, during the first Eisenhower administration, he was Director of policy planning. He returned to Harvard in 1957 where he was put in charge of the Centre for International Affairs. In the spring of 1960, he was asked by Secretary of State Herter to prepare a report on the next decade for the Atlantic Community in preparation for a NATO meeting on this theme. On his return to Harvard he was asked by George Ball to take up the position of Counsellor in the State Department in charge of European affairs. He remained there until the spring of 1968.