home > the cfr think tank > experts > richard n. haass
President, Council on Foreign Relations
Contact Info:
Phone: +1-212-434-9543; for all media requests, contact Lisa Shields at +1-212-434-9888 or lshields@cfr.org
E-mail: president@cfr.org
Location:
New York, NY
Media downloads:
One-page bio ( RICHARD HAASS - LONG BIO.PDF, 49K)
Video clip (MP4, 1.9 MB)
Video clip (MP4, 689K)
Expertise:
U.S. foreign policy; international security; globalization; Asia; Middle East
Experience:Dr. Richard Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a position he has held since July 2003. The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.
Dr. Haass is the author or editor of eleven books on American foreign policy, including War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars (Simon and Schuster, May 2009). He is also the author of one book on management: The Bureaucratic Entrepreneur: How to Be Effective in Any Unruly Organization (Brookings, 1999).
From January 2001 to June 2003, Dr. Richard Haass was director of policy planning for the Department of State, where he was a principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate to hold the rank of ambassador, Dr. Haass also served as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and U.S. envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process. For his efforts, he received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award.
Dr. Haass has extensive additional government experience. From 1989 to 1993, he was special assistant to President George H. W. Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. In 1991, Dr. Haass was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal for his contributions to the development and articulation of U.S. policy during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Previously, he served in the Departments of State (1981-85) and Defense (1979-80) and was a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate.
Dr. Haass also was vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, the Sol M. Linowitz visiting professor of international studies at Hamilton College, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. A Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Haass holds a BA from Oberlin College and the Master and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Oxford University. He has received honorary doctorates from Hamilton College, Franklin & Marshall College, Georgetown University, and Oberlin College.
Dr. Richard Haass was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1951. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
Past Research Projects
November 23, 2009
Audio
Listen to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh of India discuss U.S-Indian relations.
See more in South Asia, India, International Peace and Security
November 4, 2009
Audio
Listen to Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speak about the current nuclear situation, threats to stability, and ways to further promote nonproliferation.
See more in Global Governance, Proliferation
November 4, 2009
Video
Watch Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speak about the current nuclear situation, threats to stability, and ways to further promote nonproliferation.
See more in Global Governance, Arms Control and Disarmament
November 4, 2009, New York.
Transcript
Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speaks about the current nuclear situation, threats to stability, and ways to further promote nonproliferation.
See more in Global Governance, International Law, Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament
October 13, 2009
Op-Ed
Financial Times
Iran's political character--not just its capability--should define the international community's response to its nuclear ambitions, writes Richard Haass.
See more in Iran, International Peace and Security, Proliferation
October 11, 2009
Op-Ed
Washington Post
Richard Haass questions the degree to which success in Afghanistan is important to U.S. interests, writing that it is crucial to find a middle way between a troop surge and an immediate exit.
See more in Afghanistan, Wars and Warfare, Conflict Assessment
September 28, 2009
Interview
Richard Haass considers new approaches to the war in Afghanistan and emphasizes the importance of Pakistan is curtailing terrorism.
See more in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Wars and Warfare
September 24, 2009
Video
Watch Muammar al-Qaddafi, leader and guide of the revolution of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, discuss international issues including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and nuclear proliferation.
See more in Libya, United States
September 24, 2009
Transcript
Libyan President Muammar al-Qaddafi discusses Libya's relations with the world and states his position on terrorism, nuclear security, and Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
See more in Libya, United States
September 24, 2009
Audio
Listen to Muammar al-Qaddafi, leader and guide of the revolution of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, discuss international issues including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and nuclear proliferation.
See more in Libya
September 24, 2009
Interview
President Barack Obama's week of summitry indicates that, increasingly, the most vexing global problems are unlikely to be solved by treaties, says CFR President Richard N. Haass. An informal approach in which nations coordinate strategies could be more productive, he says.
See more in United States, International Organizations, U.S. Strategy and Politics
September 18, 2009
Academic Module
These teaching notes, by author and CFR President Richard N. Haass, feature discussion questions and additional projects for educators to supplement the CFR Book War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars. In this book, Dr. Haass contrasts the decisions that shaped the conduct of two wars between the United States and Iraq, and writes an authoritative, personal account of how U.S. foreign policy is made, what it should seek, and how it should be pursued.
September 9, 2009
Audio
Listen to former Edward R. Murrow press fellows analyze the difficulties associated with reporting from war zones based on their experiences.
This session was part of the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellowship 60th Anniversary Event, which was made possible through the generous support of the Ford Foundation and Time Warner, Inc.
See more in Media and Foreign Policy
September 9, 2009
Video
Watch former Edward R. Murrow press fellows analyze the difficulties associated with reporting from war zones based on their experiences.
This session was part of the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellowship 60th Anniversary Event, which was made possible through the generous support of the Ford Foundation and Time Warner, Inc.
See more in Wars and Warfare, Media and Foreign Policy
September 9, 2009, New York
Transcript
Council on Foreign Relations fellows discuss the role of the foreign correspondent in covering war zones at the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellowship 60th Anniversary Event.
See more in Information & Communication, Media and Foreign Policy
September 14, 2009
Op-Ed
Newsweek
Richard N. Haass argues, "Golf... provides more insight into politics and economics than most people realize."
See more in Foreign Policy History
August 21, 2009
Op-Ed
New York Times
Richard Haass argues that the U.S. war in Afghanistan is not a "war of necessity," but a "war of choice."
See more in United States, Afghanistan, Defense/Homeland Security, Wars and Warfare
August 20, 2009
Op-Ed
South China Morning Post
Richard N. Haass comments on the prospects for meaningful agreements at the upcoming Copenhagen Consensus conference.
See more in Climate Change
July 15, 2009, Washington D.C.
Transcript
See more in Diplomacy, U.S. Strategy and Politics
July 15, 2009
Audio
Listen to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as she delivers an address on the major foreign policy challenges facing the United States today.
See more in Diplomacy, U.S. Strategy and Politics
Explore the international finance regime with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:
James M. Lindsay
Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
+1.212.434.9626 (NY); +1.202.509.8405 (DC)
jlindsay@cfr.org
Janine Hill
Deputy Director of Studies Administration
+1.212.434.9753
jhill@cfr.org
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