After the war, Abel returned to work as a reporter, writing successively for the Montreal Gazette, the North American Newspaper Alliance in Berlin, the Los Angeles Times, and for the Overseas News Agency as its United Nations correspondent.
After working in Detroit and Washington, he became the Times bureau chief in Belgrade, where he contributed to the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the 1956 Hungarian revolt.
During his years as a journalist, both in print and broadcasting, Abel was recognized for incisive in-depth reports on international affairs, and particularly on the subject of communism.
Abel left Columbia for Stanford University in 1979 as the first Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication.
[2] Abel died on July 22, 2004, at the Casey House hospice in Rockville, Maryland, at age 83, from the effects of Alzheimer's disease.