2600:1702:2b91:a60:60ed:bf9e:28cf:b405 (talk) Fixed Hillary Clinton’s name. Someone had changed it to “Hitlary”. Tags: Reverted Mobile edit Mobile web edit Possible vandalism |
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Revision as of 14:23, 11 January 2021
William Joseph Burns was (born April 11, 1956) is President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace[1] and former United States Deputy Secretary of State (2011-2014). He retired from the US Foreign Service in 2014 after a 33-year diplomatic career. Burns previously served as Ambassador of the United States to Jordan from 1998 to 2001, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs from 2001 to 2005, Ambassador of the United States to the Russian Federation from 2005 to 2008, and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2008 to 2011, among other senior roles in Washington and abroad. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador,[2] and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become Deputy Secretary of State.[3] On January 11, 2021, President-elect Joe Biden nominated him to head the Central Intelligence Agency.[4]
Early life and education
Burns was born at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He earned a B.A. in history from La Salle University and M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees in international relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar.
Career
US Foreign Service
Burns entered the Foreign Service in 1982 and served as Deputy Secretary of State from 2011 to 2014. He had served as Under Secretary for Political Affairs from 2008 to 2011. He was US Ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2001 to 2005, and US Ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001. He had been also Executive Secretary of the State Department and Special Assistant to Secretaries Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Acting Director and Principal Deputy Director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, and Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs at the US National Security Council.
Burns and George Tenet were instrumental in forcing through the short-lived Israeli-Palestinian cease fire agreement of June 2001.[5][6] He played a leading role in the elimination of the Libyan illicit weapons program, efforts to reset relations with Russia in the early Obama administration, and strengthening the strategic partnership with India.
In July 2002, Burns, along with Ryan Crocker and David Pearce, sent a memo to Secretary of State Colin Powell outlining the risks of regime change in Iraq: "an effort to overthrow the regime in Baghdad could unravel if we're not careful, intersecting to create a 'perfect storm' for American interests."[7]
In 2013, Burns and Jake Sullivan led the secret bilateral channel with Iran that led to a historic interim agreement between Iran and the P5+1 and ultimately the Iran nuclear deal.[8] Burns was reported to be "in the driver's seat" of the American negotiating team for the interim agreement. Burns had met secretly with Iranian officials as early as 2008, when US President George W. Bush dispatched him.[9]
A cable that Burns signed as ambassador and released by WikiLeaks[10] describing "a high society wedding in the Caucasus -- complete with massive quantities of alcohol, lumps of gold and revolver-wielding drunkards" attended by Ramzan Kadyrov,[11] received widespread international coverage, with the historian Timothy Garton Ash writing that "Burns's analyses of Russian politics are astute," with the "highly entertaining account" of the wedding "almost worthy of Evelyn Waugh."[12]
Retirement
On April 11, the State Department announced Burns would step down as Deputy Secretary of State in October 2014, after he twice delayed his retirement first at the request of Secretary John Kerry and then at the request of Obama.
In a press statement announcing Burns's decision to retire, Kerry said, "Bill is a statesman cut from the same cloth, caliber, and contribution as George F. Kennan and Chip Bohlen, and he has more than earned his place on a very short list of American diplomatic legends."[13] Kerry lauded Burns's "quiet, head-down, get-it-done diplomacy" and stated that it had earned him the trust of both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Obama, in his own statement, said that Burns "has been a skilled advisor, consummate diplomat, and inspiration to generations of public servants... the country is stronger for Bill's service."[14]
The Atlantic called him the "secret diplomatic weapon" deployed against some of the thorniest foreign policy challenges of the US.[15]
In November 2020, Burns was named a candidate for Secretary of State in the Biden Administration.[16] On January 11, 2021, President-elect Joe Biden nominated him to head the Central Intelligence Agency.[4]
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Burns was appointed the ninth President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on February 4, 2015, where he leads a global network of 140 scholars across 20 countries and six centers.
Burns was widely assumed to be on the shortlist of the nominees of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State,[17] and is reported by POLITICO to be a possible contender for presidential candidate Joe Biden's Secretary of State as well.[18]
In late December 2020, in a column for the online CounterPunch, former CIA and State Department intelligence analyst Melvin Goodman recommended that President-elect Joe Biden nominate Burns for CIA Director.[19]
Publications
His bestselling memoir, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal, was published by Random House in 2019. It was published in conjunction with an archive of nearly 100 declassified diplomatic cables. For The Back Channel, Burns received The Douglas Dillon Book Award for Books of Distinction on the Practice of American Diplomacy (2019).[20]
In 2019, he was made a contributing writer at The Atlantic magazine.
Burns writes regularly on US foreign policy and diplomacy for the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and other publications.[21]
His Oxford dissertation was published in 1985 as Economic Aid and American Policy Toward Egypt, 1955–1981.
On December 22, 2020, Burns was a signatory to a letter to Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, advocating to not designate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. The letter stated they had no sympathy for their movement and acknowledged the negative role they played in the crisis in Yemen. But said the designation would not advance U.S. national security interests, it could further exacerbate human suffering and interfere with aid being delivered, and that it would complicate the UN-led peace negotiations. Other signatures included, Barbara Bodine, Ryan Crocker, Gerald M. Feierstein, Michael Mulroy, Anne W. Patterson, and Thomas Pickering, among others.[22]
Awards
Burns is the recipient of three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and a number of Department of State awards, including three Secretary's Distinguished Service Awards, the Secretary's Career Achievement Award, the Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Ambassadorial Award for Initiative and Success in Trade Development (2006), the Robert C. Frasure Memorial Award (2005), and the James Clement Dunn Award (1991). He also received the Department of Defense Award for Distinguished Public Service (2014), the U.S. Intelligence Community Medallion (2014), and the Central Intelligence Agency's Agency Seal Medal (2014).
In 1994, Burns was named to TIME Magazine's lists of "50 Most Promising American Leaders Under Age 40" and "100 Most Promising Global Leaders Under Age 40".[23] He was named Foreign Policy's "Diplomat of the Year" in 2013.[24] He is the recipient of Anti-Defamation League's Distinguished Statesman Award (2014),[25] the Middle East Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award (2014), and the American Academy of Diplomacy's Annenberg Award for Diplomatic Excellence (2015).[26]
Burns holds four honorary doctoral degrees and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[21] He is also an honorary Fellow, St. John's College, Oxford (from 2012).[27]
Foreign Government Decorations
- Commandeur, Legion of Honour (France)
- Knight Commander, Order of Merit (Germany)
- Grand Cordon, Order of the Rising Sun (Japan)
- Marshall Medal (UK)[28]
- Commendatore, Order of Merit (Italy)
- First Order, Al Kawkab Medal (Jordan)
Personal life
Burns and his wife Lisa Carty have two daughters.
References
- ^ "Ambassador William J. Burns Named Next Carnegie President". National Endowment for Democracy (NEFD). October 28, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^ "Career Ambassadors - Principal Officers - People - Department History - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov.
- ^ "William Burns to retire". POLITICO. Associated Press.
- ^ a b "Biden Names Career Diplomat William J. Burns As Nominee For CIA Director". Huffington Post.
- ^ Ephron, Dan (June 13, 2001). "US rokers a cease-fire in Mid-East 11th hour Deal Spells Out Steps; Disputes Remain". Boston Globe. ProQuest 405392064.
- ^ "The Tenet Plan: Israeli-Palestinian Ceasefire and Security Plan, Proposed by CIA Director George Tenet; June 13, 2001". Avalon Project. Yale Law School. Retrieved April 25, 2017.
- ^ https://carnegieendowment.org/pdf/back-channel/2002MemotoPowell6.pdf
- ^ Gordon, Michael (April 11, 2014). "Diplomat Who Led Secret Talks with Iran Plans to Retire". New York Times. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/24/career-diplomat-burns-steered-the-talks-quietly-th/
- ^ "US embassy cables: A wedding feast, the Caucasus way", 1 Dec 2010, The Guardian
- ^ SPIEGEL, DER. "Wedding in the Caucasus: The US Ambassador Learns that Cognac Is Like Wine - DER SPIEGEL - International". www.spiegel.de.
- ^ Garton Ash, Timothy (November 28, 2010). "US Embassy Cables: A Banquet of Secrets". The Guardian. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ "Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns' Decision to Retire in October 2014". www.state.gov. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ "Statement by President Obama on the Retirement of Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns". Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ Kralev, Nicholas (April 4, 2013). "The White House's Secret Diplomatic Weapon". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ "Who Are Contenders for Biden's Cabinet?". The New York Times. November 11, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ Crowley, Michael. "Would Hillary keep John Kerry on?". POLITICO.
- ^ Toosi, Nahal. "The race to be Biden's secretary of State is already underway". POLITICO. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
- ^ Goodman, Melvin. "An Open Letter to Biden: Selecting a CIA Director". Counterpunch. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ "William Burns". The American Academy of Diplomacy.
- ^ a b "William J. Burns". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
- ^ https://www.mei.edu/publications/open-letter-secretary-state-proposal-designate-houthis-foreign-terrorist-organization
- ^ "What Happened to the 'Future Leaders' of the 1990s?". Time.
- ^ "Bill Burns Honored as Diplomat of the Year". foreignpolicy.com. Foreign Policy. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ "Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns Presented with ADL Award". www.adl.org. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ "Walter and Leonore Annenberg Excellence in Diplomacy Award". The American Academy of Diplomacy.
- ^ "RAI in America". www.rai.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
- ^ "The Marshall Medal - Marshall Scholarships". www.marshallscholarship.org.
External links
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- "Biography of William J. Burns". United States Department of State. Retrieved December 8, 2010.
- United States Embassy in Moscow: Biography of the Ambassador
- "Американские послы в России и СССР" [U.S. Ambassador to Russia and the USSR]. Archived from the original on December 22, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2010.