Robert D. Blackwill

Robert D. Blackwill is President of the lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers and is Counselor to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Background
According to an April 28, 2003 John F. Kennedy School of Government press release announcement by Harvard University, Blackwill "will be leaving his diplomatic post to return to his academic career at the Kennedy School for the 2003-04 school year.

"Blackwill was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to India by President George Walker Bush in June 2001 after having served as his foreign policy advisor in the 2000 presidential campaign. Blackwill took a leave of absence from the Kennedy School after his nomination and Senate confirmation.

"As Ambassador, Blackwill has been credited with greatly improving and strengthening U.S.-India relations, encouraging the lifting of U.S. economic sanctions imposed after India's 1998 nuclear tests, and helping to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan.

"'In naming me as his envoy to this magnificent country, President Bush did me a great honor,' said Blackwell about his departure in a prepared statement released on April 21. 'I have tried to justify his confidence by energetically promoting his vision of India as a rising great power of the 21st century, and his primary goal of the world's oldest and largest democracies operating together to transform their relations, to forge concentrated strategic collaboration for the decades ahead.'

"During his tenure at the Kennedy School, Blackwill was named the first Belfer Lecturer in International Security. He was also an associate dean of the School, faculty chair of its Executive Programs for U.S. and Russian General Officers and for Senior Chinese Military Officers, and a board member of the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

"'As US Ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill made enormous strides in promoting democracy and peace in Asia. His lifelong dedication to public service, teaching, and scholarship has culminated in immense contributions to the public understanding of difficult issues of international security,' said Kennedy School Dean" Joseph Samuel Nye, Jr..

"Prior to his academic career, Blackwill spent 22 years in the foreign service and served at the State Department under Secretaries Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, and George P. Shultz. He was U.S. Ambassador and Chief Negotiator at the Conventional Force Negotiations with the Warsaw Pact in Vienna and was Special Assistant to President George Herbert Walker Bush for European and Soviet Affairs in 1989-90.


 * Director, International Institute for Strategic Studies - US

Books

 * America's Asian Alliances, with Paul Dibb (The MIT Press, 2000);
 * The Future of Transatlantic Relations (Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1999);
 * Allies Divided: Transatlantic Policies for the Greater Middle East (1997), co-edited with Michael Sturmer;
 * Arms Control and the U.S.-Russia Relationship (1996);
 * Engaging Russia (1995), co-edited with Rodric Braithwaite and Akihiko Tanaka;
 * Damage Limitation or Crisis? Russia and the Outside World (1994), edited with Sergei Karaganov; and
 * New Nuclear Nations (1993), co-edited with Albert Carnesale."


 * Director, Belfer Center

Blackwill, according to ciaonet.org, served as "Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is the Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also Faculty Chair of the School's Executive Programs for U.S. and Russian General Officers and for members of the Russian State Duma; of the Kennedy School's Initiative on U.S.-China Relations; and of the Executive Program for Senior Chinese Military Officers. His last position in government was as President George Herbert Walker Bush's Special Assistant for Soviet and European Affairs."

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