Expert Bio

Dr. Richard Haass, a veteran diplomat and respected scholar of international relations, is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations after having served as CFR’s president for twenty years. He is also senior counselor with Centerview Partners, an international investment banking advisory firm.

In 2013, he chaired the multiparty negotiations in Northern Ireland that provided the foundation for the 2014 Stormont House Agreement. For his efforts to promote peace and conflict resolution, he received the 2013 Tipperary International Peace Award.

From January 2001 to June 2003, Dr. Haass was director of policy planning for the Department of State, where he directed the policy planning staff and was a principal advisor 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.

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 (1981–1985) and Defense (1979–1980), and was a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate.

A Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Haass holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and master’s and doctorate of philosophy degrees from Oxford University. He has also received numerous honorary degrees and was a member of the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Hamilton College.

Dr. Haass is the author or editor of fourteen books on American foreign policy, one book on management, and one on American democracy. His latest book, The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens, was published by Penguin Press in January 2023 and became a New York Times best seller. He is as well the author of a weekly newsletter, Home & Away, published on Substack.

Dr. Haass was born in Brooklyn and lives in New York City.

affiliations

  • Member, Board of Directors, Lazard
  • Member, Advisory Board, Cyrus Capital Partners
  • Member, Investment Committee, Safra Foundation
  • Consultant: Dataminr, Interos.ai, and percipient.ai

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  • Climate Change

    Nicholas Stern discusses strategies to address climate change despite the economic and political challenges of the era. This meeting is the third session in CFR’s speaker series, The 21st Century World: Big Challenges & Big Ideas, which features some of today’s leading thinkers and tackles issues ​that will define this century. Our first session on April 13 featured Margaret MacMillan on “What Are the Lessons of History for Our Era?” and the second session on May 4 featured Anne Applebaum on “Can Democracy Survive?”
  • Space

    Charles F. Bolden Jr., former NASA administrator and astronaut who flew on four space shuttle missions, and his son, Ché Bolden, a Marine Corps veteran, speak at a multigenerational conversation about leadership spanning decades of public, private, and military service.  
  • Public Health Threats and Pandemics

    After a year and a half since we started living with COVID-19, we can draw some preliminary conclusions from the experience.
  • United States

    The Conference on Diversity in International Affairs brings together college and graduate students and young professionals from diverse backgrounds for plenaries on foreign policy topics, seminars on professional development, and opportunities to interact virtually with senior foreign policy professionals. The 2021 conference featured a keynote session with President of the Ford Foundation Darren Walker. The 2021 Conference on Diversity in International Affairs is a collaborative effort by the Council on Foreign Relations, the Global Access Pipeline, and the International Career Advancement Program. For information about the conference in previous years, please click here
  • Global Governance

    Richard N. Haass, Chen Dongxiao, and Nathalie Tocci discuss the mounting challenges to global governance and their implications for international cooperation, including rising climate concerns, economic volatility, and increasing great power tensions amid a global pandemic. The Council of Councils (CoC) is an international initiative created by the Council on Foreign Relations to connect leading foreign policy institutes from around the world in a dialogue on issues of global governance and multilateral cooperation. The CoC is composed of twenty-eight major policy institutes from some of the world’s most influential countries. It is designed to facilitate candid, not-for-attribution dialogue and consensus-building among influential opinion leaders from both established and emerging nations, with the ultimate purpose of injecting the conclusions of its deliberations into high-level foreign policy circles within members' countries.
  • Religion

    TIPPETT: Well, it is my pleasure to convene this gathering with a few announcements. First of all, welcome, everyone, to this opening session of the CFR Religion and Foreign Policy Workshop. I am Kri…
  • Public Health Threats and Pandemics

    CFR's annual Religion and Foreign Policy Workshop brings together high-level congregational and lay leaders, scholars of religion, and representatives of faith-based organizations from across the cou…
  • China

    Anne Applebaum discusses the prospects for democracy in light of emerging challenges and alternatives. This meeting is the second session in CFR’s new speaker series, The 21st Century World: Big Challenges & Big Ideas, which will feature some of today’s leading thinkers and tackle issues ​that will define this century. The series commemorates CFR’s centennial and will be released as a podcast later this year. Our first session on April 13 featured Margaret MacMillan on “What Are the Lessons of History for Our Era?”   This meeting is part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy.
  • Politics and Government

    The basic themes of Biden's presidency have emerged. While many represent a sharp departure, there is considerable continuity when it comes to foreign policy.
  • China

    State Councilor Wang Yi discusses China's foreign and domestic policies, including the impact of COVID-19 and the future of relations with the United States.
  • Richard Haass

    Afghanistan War

  • United States

    Please join Margaret MacMillan for a discussion of prominent events in history that can help increase our understanding of current events and guide policymaking.  This meeting will launch CFR’s new speaker series, The 21st Century World: Big Challenges & Big Ideas, which will feature some of today’s leading thinkers and tackle issues ​that will define this century. The series commemorates CFR’s centennial and will be released as a podcast later this year. 

Top Stories on CFR

United States

Each Friday, I look at what the presidential contenders are saying about foreign policy. This Week: Joe Biden doesn’t want one of America’s closest allies to buy a once iconic American company.

Immigration and Migration

Dara Lind, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the record surge in migrants and asylum seekers crossing the U.S. southern border.

Center for Preventive Action

Every January, CFR’s annual Preventive Priorities Survey analyzes the conflicts most likely to occur in the year ahead and measures their potential impact. For the first time, the survey anticipates that this year, 2024, the United States will contend not only with a slew of global threats, but also a high risk of upheaval within its own borders. Is the country prepared for the eruption of election-related instability at home while wars continue to rage abroad?