R. Nicholas Burns | |
---|---|
13th United States Ambassador to China | |
Assumed office April 1, 2022 | |
President | Joe Biden |
Preceded by | Terry Branstad |
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs | |
In office March 18,2005 –February 29,2008 | |
President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Marc Grossman |
Succeeded by | William J. Burns |
United States Ambassador to NATO | |
In office August 7,2001 –March 7,2005 | |
President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Sandy Vershbow |
Succeeded by | Victoria Nuland |
United States Ambassador to Greece | |
In office December 22,1997 –July 29,2001 | |
President | Bill Clinton George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Thomas Niles |
Succeeded by | Thomas Miller |
Spokesperson for the United States Department of State | |
In office 1995–1997 | |
President | Bill Clinton |
Preceded by | Mike McCurry |
Succeeded by | James Rubin |
Personal details | |
Born | Robert Nicholas Burns January 28,1956 Buffalo,New York,U.S. |
Spouse | Elizabeth Baylies |
Children | 3 |
Education | Boston College (BA) Johns Hopkins University (MA) |
Robert Nicholas Burns (born January 28, 1956) is an American diplomat and academic who has served as the United States ambassador to China since 2022. [1]
Burns has had a 25-year career in the State Department, and served as United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Appointed by President George W. Bush, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 17, 2005, and was sworn into office by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. As under secretary, he oversaw the bureaus responsible for U.S. policy in each region of the world and served in the senior career Foreign Service position at the department. He retired on April 30, 2008. He was a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in summer 2008.
Burns was a professor of diplomacy and international politics at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University and a member of the Board of Directors of the school's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He was director of the Aspen Strategy Group, [2] senior counselor at The Cohen Group, and serves on the board of directors of Entegris, Inc. He writes a bi-weekly column on foreign affairs for The Boston Globe and is a senior foreign affairs columnist for GlobalPost . He also serves on the board of directors of the Atlantic Council, [3] the Council on Foreign Relations, Special Olympics, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, American Media Abroad, the Gennadius Library and the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. Burns is vice chairman of the American Ditchley Foundation and serves on the panel of senior advisors at Chatham House.
President Joe Biden nominated Burns to be Ambassador to China in August 2021. He was confirmed by the Senate on December 16, 2021, by a vote of 75–18. He presented his credentials on April 1, 2022.
Burns was born in Buffalo, New York, and raised in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Burns attended Wellesley High School, [4] and studied abroad in Luxembourg in 1973 with the American Field Service Program. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, with a concentration in European history, from Boston College. He also studied abroad at the University of Paris. He received a master's degree from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1980 in international relations concentrating on international economics, American foreign policy, and Africa.
He speaks French, Arabic, Greek, and English.
Prior to entering the Foreign Service, Burns worked as program officer at A.T. International, a nonprofit organization specializing in economic assistance for Third World countries.
Burns began his Foreign Service career in Africa and the Middle East. He was an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania, Vice Consul and Staff Assistant to the Ambassador in Cairo, Egypt, from 1983 to 1985, and then political officer at the American Consulate General in Jerusalem from 1985 to 1987, where his second daughter Elizabeth was born in 1986. In this position, he coordinated U.S. economic assistance to the Palestinian population in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Under President George H. W. Bush, he was director for Soviet and then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian affairs. During this time, he attended all U.S.–Soviet summits and numerous other international meetings and specialized on economic assistance issues, U.S. ties with Russia and Ukraine, and relations with the Baltic countries. He was a member of the Department's Transition Team in 1988, and served as Staff Officer in the Department's Operations Center and Secretariat in 1987–1988.
Burns served for five years (1990–1995) on the National Security Council staff at the White House. He was special assistant to President Bill Clinton and Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia Affairs. He had lead responsibility in the White House for advising the president on all aspects of U.S. relations with the fifteen countries of the former Soviet Union.
From 1995 to 1997, Burns was Spokesman of the Department of State and Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Secretary Madeleine Albright. In this position, he gave daily press conferences on U.S. foreign policy issues, accompanied both Secretaries of State on all their foreign trips and coordinated all of the department's public outreach programs.
From 1997 to 2001, Burns was the United States Ambassador to Greece. [5] During his tenure as Ambassador, the U.S. expanded its military and law enforcement cooperation with Greece, strengthened their partnership in the Balkans, and increased trade investment and people-to-people programs.[ citation needed ]
Burns supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [6] Prior to his final assignment, Burns was the United States Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. [7] As Ambassador to NATO, he headed the combined State-Defense Department U.S. Mission to NATO at a time when the Alliance committed to new missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war against terrorism, and accepted seven new members.
On January 18, 2008, Burns announced his retirement from the Foreign Service effective March 2008. The reason cited was to go back to family concerns and to pursue other opportunities outside of government. [8] [9] A White House press statement stated that Burns would continue to serve in an advisory capacity as the United States Special Envoy in finalizing the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act.
After leaving government service Burns started working for the Cohen Group, an international business consulting firm. [10]
At Harvard Kennedy School, Burns has taught courses in diplomacy, American foreign policy, and international politics. He is a strong advocate for diplomacy, and has argued that the United States "should make a very strong effort to get to the negotiating table with Iran". [11] Burns is also an active speaker on the lecture circuit and in 2013 gave the lecture at the year's installment of the Waldo Family Lecture Series on International Relations at Old Dominion University. [12]
Burns said that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is a traitor: "He went to China and Russia. That is why I dislike Snowden". [6] On the 2012 Benghazi attack, Burns defended Secretary of State Clinton, saying "I find it distasteful that Benghazi has been politicized." [6] He endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president. [6]
Burns was a foreign policy adviser for the Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign, and was an informal adviser to Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. As a Bush advisor, Burns supported the Iraq War, though today he calls it "a pretty serious blunder." He is director of the Aspen Strategy Group, a forum of establishment foreign policy thinkers. [13]
Burns has also consulted and given paid speeches for the employees of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, State Street, CitiBank, Honeywell, and a number of other companies, universities, and associations. [13]
In August 2021, Burns was nominated by the Biden administration to serve as Ambassador to China. [14] The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on his nomination on October 20, 2021. The committee favorably reported his nomination to the Senate floor on November 3, 2021. Republican Senator Marco Rubio had stalled Burns's nomination, citing his business relationships in China. [15] [16]
Burns was confirmed by the Senate on December 16, 2021, by a vote of 75–18. [17] He presented his credentials to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on April 1, 2022. [18] He also presented his credentials to Chinese president Xi Jinping on 25 April 2023. [19]
Burns was involved in the June 2023 meeting between American and Chinese officials, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang, that aimed to re-establish diplomatic communications after the bilateral relationship worsened in preceding years and months, including after the US shoot-down of a Chinese high-altitude balloon in February 2023. [20]
In July 2023, it was reported that Burns's email account was hacked in a breach of Microsoft emails by the Chinese government. [21] [22]
Burns and his wife Elizabeth Baylies have three daughters.
Burns is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Trilateral Commission, American Academy of Diplomacy, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Order of St. John, America Abroad Media advisory board, [23] and is a lifelong member of Red Sox Nation. [24]
Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the president to serve as the country's diplomatic representatives to foreign nations, international organizations, and as ambassadors-at-large. Under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, their appointment must be confirmed by the United States Senate; while an ambassador may be appointed during a recess, they can serve only until the end of the next session of Congress, unless subsequently confirmed.
Winston Lord is an American diplomat and leader of non-governmental foreign policy organizations. He has served as Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor (1970–1973), Director of the State Department Policy Planning Staff (1973–1977), President of the Council on Foreign Relations (1977–1985), Ambassador to China (1985–1989), and Assistant Secretary of State (1993–1997).
Nicholas Platt is an American diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Pakistan, Philippines, Zambia, and as a high level diplomat in Canada, China, Hong Kong, and Japan. He is the former president of the Asia Society in New York City.
Richard Nathan Haass is an American diplomat. He was president of the Council on Foreign Relations from July 2003 to June 2023, prior to which he was director of policy planning for the United States Department of State and a close advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George W. Bush administration. In October 2022, Haass announced he would be departing from his position at CFR in June 2023. He was succeeded by former U.S. trade representative Michael Froman.
William Joseph Burns is an American diplomat who has served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Biden administration since March 19, 2021. He previously served as U.S. deputy secretary of state from 2011 to 2014; in 2009 he served as acting secretary of state for a day, prior to the confirmation of Hillary Clinton. Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a 32-year career. From 2014 to 2021, he served as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Yang Jiechi is a Chinese senior diplomat and retired politician. He served as director of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Foreign Affairs Commission from 2013 and 2022, State Councilor from 2013 to 2018, Minister of Foreign Affairs of China from 2007 to 2013.
Kurt Michael Campbell is an American diplomat and businessman currently serving as the deputy secretary of state since 2024. He previously served as National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific from 2021 to 2024. In this capacity, Campbell had been referred to as the Biden administration's "Asia coordinator" or "Asia czar"—chief architect of Joe Biden's Asia strategy.
Lee Andrew Feinstein is an American policy-scholar, and former diplomat and senior official at the US Departments of State and Defense. Feinstein held senior positions on leading Democratic presidential campaigns in 2008. He served as the United States Ambassador to Poland from 2009 to 2012, appointed by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate. Feinstein is currently the inaugural dean at Indiana University's Lee H. Hamilton and Richard G. Lugar School of Global and International Studies. His nonpartisan scholarship has been recognized by leading Republicans and Democrats.
Roberta S. Jacobson is an American diplomat who was the United States Ambassador to Mexico from June 2016 to May 2018. She previously served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs from March 30, 2012, to May 5, 2016. The United States Senate approved her nomination as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico on April 28, 2016. In March 2018, Jacobson announced her resignation effective May 5. Foreign Policy reported on January 18, 2021 that Jacobson would be in charge of Mexico–United States border affairs at the National Security Council under President Joe Biden.
Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan is an American attorney who currently serves as the United States National Security Advisor, reporting directly to President Joe Biden. He previously served as Director of Policy to President Barack Obama, National Security Advisor to then Vice President Biden and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Department of State. Sullivan also served as senior advisor to the U.S. federal government at the Iran nuclear negotiations and senior policy advisor to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, as well as visiting professor at Yale Law School.
Michael C. Horowitz is an American international relations scholar currently serving as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Biden administration. Prior to joining the Defense Department in April 2022, he was a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield is an American diplomat who serves as the United States ambassador to the United Nations under President Joe Biden. She served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2013 to 2017. Thomas-Greenfield then worked in the private sector as a senior vice president at business strategy firm Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington, D.C.
Carmen G. Cantor is an American diplomat who is serving as the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs. She previously served as the United States ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia.
Michael R. Carpenter is an American diplomat currently serving as United States ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the Biden administration.
Caryn R. McClelland is an American diplomat who is serving as the United States ambassador to Brunei. She assumed office in 2022.
Elizabeth Anne Noseworthy Fitzsimmons is an American diplomat who is serving as the United States Ambassador to Togo.
David R. Gilmour is an American diplomat who is serving as the United States Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea since 2022.
Richard Lee Buangan is an American diplomat who has served as United States ambassador to Mongolia since November 2022.
Hugo Yue-Ho Yon is an American diplomat serving as the U.S. ambassador to the Maldives since September 2023.
Zack Cooper is an American national security and foreign policy analyst currently serving as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University, and a lecturer in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Open Technology Fund and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance.