Honorary Chairperson: Senator George J. Mitchell

Sen. George J. Mitchell was appointed to the United States Senate from Maine in 1980 to complete the un-expired term of Senator Edmund S. Muskie, who resigned to become Secretary of State. Mitchell was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1982, and reelected in 1988. He left the Senate in 1995 as the Senate Majority Leader, a position he had held since January 1989. Sen. Mitchell chaired the Peace Negotiations in Northern Ireland that led to the historic 1998 Good Friday peace accord and, in 2009, President Obama appointed him Special Envoy for the Middle East. Senator Mitchell has fought for clean air and water throughout his political career. Specifically, he was the impetus for the 1990 reauthorization of the Clean Air Act, including new controls on acid rain toxins, and he authored the first national oil spill prevention and clean-up law. The Senator George J. Mitchell Center at the University of Maine is the home of Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative, as well as Maine’s congressionally-authorized Water Resources Research Institute. Mitchell was born and raised in Waterville, Maine and graduated from Waterville High School, Bowdoin College, and Georgetown University Law Center.

Keynote: Frederick Kirschenmann

Fred Kirschenmann has been involved in sustainable agriculture and food issues for most of his life. He currently serves as both a Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, and as President of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also continues to manage his family’s 1,800-acre certified organic farm in south central North Dakota. He is a professor in the ISU Department of Religion and Philosophy and holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Chicago. He has held numerous appointments, including the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board and the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production operated by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and funded by Pew Charitable Trusts. Kirschenmann also has been advisor for several documentaries including American Meat and Symphony of the Soil. In April 2010, the University Press of Kentucky published a book of Kirschenmann’s essays, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher, that trace the evolution of his ecological and farming philosophy over the past 30 years. Kirschenmann served as the Leopold Center’s second director from July 2000 to November 2005 and has been recognized widely for his work. He was one of the first 10 recipients of the James F. Beard Foundation Leadership awards in 2011 and received the 2012 Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award from Practical Farmers of Iowa.

Moderator: John Piotti

John Piotti is President and CEO of Maine Farmland Trust, an award-winning statewide non-profit organization that has helped over 125 Maine farms remain viable and helped protect over 25,000 acres of Maine’s best farmland. John has worked on agriculture issues for the past 16 years. Through 2006, he managed all the farm programs for Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), Maine’s premiere community development organization. He has served as chair of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG) and as a director of the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. From 2002 to 2010 John also served in Maine’s citizen Legislature, where he chaired the Agriculture Committee and served as House Majority Leader. In 2005, John was one of only eight Americans awarded a prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship. He spent time in Sweden and Brussels exploring European models for using agriculture as a vehicle to advance sustainable community development. John holds three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in engineering, public policy, and management. He lives in Unity, Maine with his wife Susan and children Anna and John.

David Gustafson

Dave Gustafson is a Senior Science Fellow at Monsanto Company, where he serves as the regulatory lead for Water Quality and Agricultural Sustainability. His research on the environmental challenges surrounding agriculture has now spanned nearly 30 years. The initial focus of his work was the development of new computer models for predicting the environmental behavior of crop chemicals, especially their potential impacts on water quality. Among the models he developed for this purpose is the GUS-Index, which is now used by regulatory agencies worldwide to determine the potential of pesticides to contaminate ground water supplies. In subsequent years, Dave developed new modeling approaches to pollen-mediated gene flow and the population genetics of insect and weed resistance. In 2007, Dave served as an inaugural member and lead for the Monsanto Fellows Climate Change Panel, which reported back to the company on the degree of scientific certainty in global climate modeling, and how it is likely to impact agriculture around the world. He now serves on various Monsanto teams looking at the new imperatives and constraints placed on agriculture by man-made global warming, hypoxia, and other environmental challenges. Dave holds a B.S. and Ph.D., both in chemical engineering, from Stanford University and the University of Washington in Seattle.

Andrew Guzman

Berkeley law professor Andrew Guzman is author of the widely acclaimed book Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change from Oxford University Press, which argues that climate change will be a social and political disaster of the first order, bringing unprecedented migrations, famine, war, and disease. Professor of Law and Director of the Advanced Law degree Programs at Berkeley Law School, University of California, Berkeley, Professor Guzman holds a J.D. and Ph.D. (economics) from Harvard University. He has written extensively on international trade, international regulatory matters, foreign direct investment and public international law, and served as editor on the recently published Handbook of International Economic Law (Elgar Publishers) and authored How International Law Works (Oxford University Press). Guzman is also a member of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration’s Academic Council and is on the board of several academic journals. He has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, the University of Chicago Law School, the University of Virginia Law School, Vanderbilt Law School, the University of Hamburg, and the National University Law School in Bangalore, India.

Jim Harkness

Jim Harkness recently became the Senior Advisor on China for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and has been President of the organization since 2006. Previously he served as executive director of the World Wildlife Fund in China from 1999-2005, where he expanded the organization’s profile from a strict focus on conservation of biodiversity to also addressing the consequences of China’s economic growth on a broader sustainable development agenda. From 1995-1999, Jim worked as the Ford Foundation’s Environment and Development Program Officer for China. He has written and spoken frequently on China and sustainable development, and has served as an advisor to the World Bank and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Jim earned a B.A. in Asian studies from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in development sociology from Cornell University.

Calestous Juma

Calestous Juma is Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He directs the Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and serves as Faculty Chair of Innovation for Economic Development executive program. Juma is a former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and Founding Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi, Kenya. He is co-chair of the African Union’s High-Level Panel on Science, Technology and Innovation and a jury member of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. He was Chancellor of the University of Guyana and has been elected to several scientific academies including the Royal Society of London, the US National Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences, the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and the African Academy of Sciences. He has won several international awards for his work on sustainable development. He holds a doctorate in science and technology policy studies and has written widely on science, technology, and environment. Juma serves on the boards of several international bodies and is editor of the International Journal of Technology and Globalisation and the International Journal of Biotechnology. His latest book, The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011.

Andreas Merkl

Andreas Merkl is the President and CEO of Ocean Conservancy which educates and empowers citizens to take action to tackle the ocean’s biggest challenges with science-based solutions. Prior to taking the helm at Ocean Conservancy, Andreas served as a principal at California Environmental Associates, a San Francisco-based think tank and consultancy that works on the management of the natural resource commons, ranging from fisheries to freshwater, forests, air and biodiversity. Andreas’ particular interest has been the deeply connected challenges of ocean ecosystem decline and climate change. He has worked with the major U.S. foundations, multi-laterals and corporations on developing market-based incentive systems for responsible resource stewardship, ranging from catch-share systems for commercial fisheries to green growth development mechanisms for developing countries. Earlier in his career, Merkl was a founding member of McKinsey & Company’s Environmental Practice and served as Vice President and co-founder of the CH2M HILL Strategy Group, a leading provider of environmental management consulting services worldwide. Andreas has broad experience in environmental management consulting, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and business strategy. He holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard University, a master’s degree in Regional Planning and Natural Resource Analysis from the University of California at Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Kathleen Merrigan

Kathleen Merrigan is the former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture where she oversaw its daily operations and served on the President’s Management Council, working to improve accountability and performance across the federal government. Merrigan managed the USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative to highlight the critical connection between farmers and consumers and support local and regional food systems that increase economic opportunity in rural America. In 2009 she made history as the first woman to chair the Ministerial Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and, in 2010, was named by Time magazine as among the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Robert Paarlberg

Robert Paarlberg, Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, is an independent scholar and consultant specializing in global food and agricultural policy. He is the Betty Freyhof Johnson Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College and an Associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He received his BA in government from Carleton College and his PhD in government from Harvard. Paarlberg has recently been a member of the Board of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the National Research Council and a consultant to the National Intelligence Council (NIC), USAID, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the World Bank, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2009 he presented testimony on U.S. agricultural development assistance policy to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. His 2008 book from Harvard University Press was titled Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept out of Africa. His 2010 book from Oxford University Press is titled Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know.

August “Gus” Schumacher, Jr.

Gus Schumacher is the Vice President of Policy at the Wholesome Wave Foundation in Westport, Connecticut, an organization that links local farmers around the country to supply healthy, sustainably grown produce at farmers’ markets to under-served neighborhoods. As the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at United States Department of Agriculture from 1997 to 2001, Gus oversaw the Farm Service Agency, the Foreign Agricultural Service, and the Risk Management Agency. Prior to his appointment, Schumacher served as Administrator of the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, worked as a senior agri-lender for the World Bank, and served as Commissioner of Food and Agriculture for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Schumacher is a member of the 21st Century Sustainable Agricultural Task Force of the National Academy of Sciences and was recently honored with the James Beard Foundation’s Leadership Award. He holds a degree in economics from Harvard College, studied at the London School of Economics and was a research associate in agribusiness at the Harvard Business School.

Keynote: Robin Wright

Robin Wright is a journalist, author, and foreign policy analyst. She has reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Sunday Times of London, CBS News, and the Christian Science Monitor. She won the National Magazine Award for The New Yorker. She has also written for The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Magazine, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and many others. Wright has been a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and spent several years as a roving correspondent in Asia and Latin America. She most recently covered U.S. foreign policy for the Washington Post. Besides a long career in journalism, Wright has been a fellow at the Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Yale, Duke, Stanford, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Southern California. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan. Wright has held a joint appointment as a United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellow and Wilson Center Distinguished Scholar during which she produced three books: The Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and U.S. Policy (2010), Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World (2011), and The Islamists Are Coming: Who They Really Are (2012).

Moderator: R. Nicholas Burns

Nicholas Burns is currently Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. He retired from the State Department in April, 2008 after a distinguished career spanning 27 years. From 2005 until his retirement, Burns was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs – the third-ranking position in the State Department – where he led U.S. negotiations with such countries as Iran, India, and Kosovo, and supervised U.S. diplomacy in all regions of the world. Burns was U.S. Ambassador to NATO and to Greece. He was the State Department Spokesman for two years and spent five years on the National Security Council staff including as Special Assistant to President Clinton focusing on the former Soviet Union. Later he was Director for Soviet Affairs on the NSC under President George H.W. Bush. Earlier in his career, Burns was posted to Egypt and Mauritania and served as Political Officer at the American Consulate General in Jerusalem. He is Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, Senior Counselor at the Cohen Group, and serves on many boards including the Atlantic Council, the Rockefeller Brothers, the American Ditchley Foundation, Veracity Worldwide, the Center for a New American Security, and the Appeal of Conscience, as well as being a proud member of Red Sox Nation.

Shai Feldman

Prof. Shai Feldman is the Judith and Sidney Swartz Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and Professor of Politics at Brandeis University. He is also a Senior Fellow and a member of the Board of Directors of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs where he serves as co-chair of the Crown-Belfer Middle East Project. Prof. Feldman is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London. In 2001-2003, Feldman served as a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. Educated at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Prof. Feldman was awarded the Ph.D. by the University of California at Berkeley in 1980.

Prof. Feldman is the author of numerous publications, including: Israeli Nuclear Deterrence: A Strategy for the 1980s (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982); The Future of U.S.-Israel Strategic Cooperation(Washington D.C.: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1996); Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control in the Middle East (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997);Bridging the Gap: A Future Security Architecture for the Middle East (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997 – with Abdullah Toukan (Jordan); and,Track-II Diplomacy: Lessons from the Middle East (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003 – with Hussein Agha, Ahmad Khalidi, and Zeev Schiff).

F. Gregory Gause

F. Gregory Gause III is a professor and chair of the political science department at the University of Vermont. In 2009 and 2010, he was the Kuwait Foundation visiting professor of international affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He was previously on the faculty of Columbia University between 1987 and 1995, and was also the fellow for Arab and Islamic studies at the Council on Foreign Relations from 1993 to 1994. His scholarly articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Security Studies, Middle East Journal, and other journals and edited volumes. His most recent book is The International Relations of the Persian Gulf. He has testified on Gulf issues before congressional committees and has made numerous appearances on television and radio commenting on Middle East issues. Gause received his PhD in political science from Harvard University and his BA summa cum laude from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He also studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo and Middlebury College.

Barbara Ibrahim

Barbara Ibrahim is founding director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, established in 2006 at the American University in Cairo. Prior to that she served for 14 years as regional director for West Asia and North Africa of the Population Council. From 1982 to 1990, she was a program officer at the Ford Foundation regional office in Cairo, responsible for programs in urban poverty, micro-enterprise lending, and gender studies. In 1990, she was a senior research associate at the Center for the Study of Philanthropy, City University of New York. She has an MA in sociology from the American University of Beirut (1975) and a Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University (1980). Her publications are in the fields of women’s employment, youth transitions to adulthood, gender and health, and Arab philanthropy. In 1999, she was inducted into the International Educators’ Hall of Fame. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies in 2003.

Joshua Landis

Joshua M. Landis is Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma where he teaches modern Middle Eastern history and politics and writes on Syria and its surrounding countries. Dr. Landis writes “Syria Comment,” a daily newsletter on Syrian politics that attracts some 3,000 readers a day. It is widely read by officials in Washington, Europe and Syria. Dr. Landis regularly travels to Washington DC to consult with the State Department and other government agencies. He is a frequent analyst on TV and radio. Most recently he has appeared on the Jim Lehrer News Hour, Charlie Rose Show, CNN, Fox News, and has been widely quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, and comments frequently for NPR and BBC radio. He has spoken at the Brookings Institute, USIP, Middle East Institute, and Council on Foreign Relations. He was educated at Swarthmore (BA), Harvard (MA), and Princeton (PhD). He has lived over 14 years in the Middle East and received numerous grants to study in the region, including three Fulbright grants and one from the Social Science Research Council.

Marc Lynch

Marc Lynch is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He serves as Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies as well as the Middle East Studies Program. Lynch also leads the Project on Middle East Political Science and edits the Middle East Channel for ForeignPolicy.com. He is a non-resident fellow at the Center for a New American Society. Professor Lynch received his B.A. in Political Science from Duke University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. Lynch is author of Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today (Columbia Univ. Press–2007) and the recently issued The Arab Uprising: The Incomplete Revolutions of the New Middle East (Public Affairs Press).

Seyed Hossein Mousavian

Seyed Hossein Mousavian is a Research Scholar at the Program on Science and Global Security. He is a former diplomat who served as Iran’s Ambassador to Germany (1990-1997), head of the Foreign Relations Committee of Iran’s National Security Council (1997-2005) and as spokesman for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the European Union (2003-5). He has taught at Islamic Azad University (Tehran), served as Vice President of Iran’s official Center for Strategic Research (Tehran) and was the editor in chief of the Tehran Times. Mousavian earned a PhD in international relations from the University of Kent in the U.K. His research focuses on options for resolving the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy and improving US-Iran relations.

Marwan Muasher

Marwan Muasher is a Jordanian diplomat who currently serves as Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. He began his career as a journalist with the Jordan Times before serving with the Ministry of Planning and in the office of the Prime Minister of Jordan. Foreign postings began as Director of the Jordan Information Bureau in Washington, D.C. In 1995 Muasher was Jordan’s first Ambassador to Israel. A year later he was Minister of Information and government spokesman in Amman. From 1997 to 2002 he was Jordan’s Ambassador to the United States. For two years he was Foreign Minister and then served as Deputy Prime Minister leading a reform and planning agenda for the government. From 2007 to 2010 Muasher was Senior Vice President for External Affairs at the World Bank. He is the author of The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation (Yale University Press-2008) and is writing a book on the Arab Awakening.

Keynote: Bill Richardson

The Honorable William Blaine “Bill” Richardson III completed his second term as Governor of New Mexico in December 2010. Since entering life as a private citizen, Governor Richardson was named chairman of APCO Worldwide’s executive advisory service Global Political Strategies (GPS). In January 2011, Richardson was named Special Envoy for the Organization of American States (OAS), adding another platform for initiatives within peace and reconciliation in the Western hemisphere. In addition, the Governor has joined several non-profit and for profit boards. The Governor also gives speeches on domestic and foreign policy through the Washington Speakers Bureau.

Governor Richardson was first elected to office in 2002 and re-elected in 2006 with the support of 69 percent of voters, representing the largest margin of victory for any Governor in state history. Bill Richardson’s bold governing style moved New Mexico forward in several important areas, including: clean energy, education, environment, and health care.

In 2008, Governor Richardson sought the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

Governor Richardson served for 15 years in northern New Mexico representing the 3rd Congressional District. Governor Richardson served in 1997 as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and in 1998, he was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy.

While a congressman, Richardson served as a special envoy on many sensitive international missions. He successfully won the release of hostages, American servicemen, and prisoners in North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Sudan. Governor Richardson has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2001, Richardson assumed the chairmanship of Freedom House, a private, non-partisan organization that promotes democracy worldwide. He also worked as a business consultant in Santa Fe and served on several boards including the Natural Resource Defense Council and United Way International.

Bill Richardson has been married to his high school sweetheart, Barbara, for 37 years. Richardson received a BA from Tufts in 1970 and a MA from Tuft’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971.

Moderator and Speaker: R. Nicholas Burns

Nicholas Burns is Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project and Faculty Chair for the Programs on the Middle East and on India and South Asia. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He was a visiting Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in summer 2008.

He is Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, Senior Counselor at the Cohen Group, Vice Chairman of the American Ditchley Foundation and serves on the Board of Directors of Entegris, Inc., and the Advisory Board for Veracity Worldwide. Burns is on the Board of Directors of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Center for a New American Security, The Atlantic Council and a number of other non-profit organizations. He serves on the Panel of Senior Advisors at Chatham House: the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and on the Board of the Associates of the Boston Public Library. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission., the Order of Saint John and Red Sox Nation.

Ambassador Burns served in the United States Foreign Service for twenty-seven years until his retirement in April 2008. He was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008, the State Department’s third-ranking official when he led negotiations on the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, a long-term military assistance agreement with Israel and was the lead U.S. negotiator on Iran’s nuclear program. He was U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005) and to Greece (1997-2001) and State Department Spokesman (1995-1997). He worked for five years (1990-1995) on the National Security Council at the White House when he was Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Affairs and Special Assistant to President Clinton and, before that, Director for Soviet Affairs in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush. Burns also served in the American Consulate General in Jerusalem from 1985 to 1987 where he coordinated U.S. economic assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and before that, at the American embassies in Egypt and Mauritania. He has received twelve honorary degrees, the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award, the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service from the Johns Hopkins University and the Boston College Alumni Achievement Award. Burns has a BA in History from Boston College (1978) and an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (1980). He also earned the Certificat Pratique de Langue Francaise at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1977.

Deborah Amos

Deborah Amos covers the Middle East for NPR News. Her reports can be heard on NPR’s award-winning Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition.
Amos travels extensively across the Middle East covering a range of stories including the rise of well-educated Syria youth who are unqualified for jobs in a market-drive economy, a series focusing on the emerging power of Turkey and the plight of Iraqi refugees.

In 2009, Amos won the Edward Weintal Prize for Diplomatic Reporting from Georgetown University and in 2010 was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Life Time Achievement Award by Washington State University. Amos was part of a team of reporters who won a 2004 Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia Award for coverage of Iraq. A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1991-1992, Amos was returned to Harvard in 2010 as a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School.

In 2003, Amos returned to NPR after a decade in television news, including ABC’s Nightline and World News Tonight and the PBS programs NOW with Bill Moyers and Frontline.

When Amos first came to NPR in 1977, she worked first as a director and then a producer for Weekend All Things Considered until 1979. For the next six years, she worked on radio documentaries, which won her several significant honors. In 1982, Amos received the Prix Italia, the Ohio State Award, and a DuPont-Columbia Award for “Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown” and in 1984 she received a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for “Refugees.”

From 1985 until 1993, Amos spend most of her time at NPR reporting overseas, including as the London Bureau Chief and as an NPR foreign correspondent based in Amman, Jordan. During that time, Amos won several awards, including an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award and a Break thru Award, and widespread recognition for her coverage of the Gulf War in 1991.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Amos is also the author of Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East (Public Affairs, 2010) and Lines in the Sand: Desert Storm and the Remaking of the Arab World (Simon and Schuster, 1992).

Amos began her career after receiving a degree in broadcasting from the University of Florida at Gainesville.

Pete du Pont

Pete du Pont is a regular columnist on www.opinionjournal.com, the editorial page website of The Wall Street Journal. Entitled, Outside the Box, du Pont’s columns discuss current public policy and political matters.

du Pont has served as a state legislator, U.S. Congressman, Governor, and in 1988 was a Republican candidate for President of the United States. In 1996, Pete du Pont co-founded IntellectualCapital.com, a weekly on-line public policy journal featuring the leading ideas of renowned public policy thinkers.

Pete du Pont began his political career in 1968 with his election to the House of Representatives of the Delaware General Assembly. He served for six years in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1971-1977. He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and in l975 was picked by Time magazine as one of America’s “200 Faces for the Future.”

In l976, Pete du Pont was elected Governor of Delaware. He was re-elected in 1980 to a second term, winning a record 7l% of the vote and becoming the first Delaware Governor reelected in 20 years. During his tenure as Delaware’s Governor, du Pont restored financial integrity to the state government. He signed into law two income tax reduction measures, the first tax reductions in Delaware’s history, and a constitutional amendment that restrained future tax increases and limited government spending. He balanced his state budget eight out of eight years.

As Governor, Pete du Pont also focused his energies on education and preventing youth unemployment. In 1979, he founded the nonprofit “Jobs for Delaware Graduates,” an employment counseling and job placement program for high school seniors not bound for college. This successful program gave birth in 1980 to “Jobs for America’s Graduates,” an identical movement currently functioning in twenty some states and foreign countries.

In his campaign for the Presidency, du Pont’s focus was upon the central issues facing our country — the economy, taxes, education, retirement income, and defense.

A leader in the debate on how to improve education, in 1984 Pete du Pont served as Chairman of the Education Commission of the States, a national organization of educators dedicated to improving all facets of American education.

du Pont was a member of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform. The Commission was established by Speaker Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to examine overhauling the tax system. The Commission’s January report called for repeal of the existing tax code and its replacement with a low, single-rate tax with a generous personal exemption.

Pete du Pont served as Chairman of the Hudson Institute from 1985-1987 and the National Review Institute from 1994-1997. He received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 1956 from Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1957-1960. He graduated with his Doctors of Law degree from Harvard University in 1963. Upon graduation from Harvard, he joined the Du Pont Company at its Wilmington, Delaware, headquarters, and held several positions there until 1968 when he resigned as quality control supervisor to begin his political career.

Pete du Pont was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on January 22, 1935. He is married to the former Elise R. Wood. They have a daughter, three sons, four granddaughters and three grandsons.

Amory B. Lovins

Amory Lovins, a MacArthur and Ashoka Fellow and consultant physicist, is among the world’s leading innovators in energy and its links with resources, security, development, and environment. He has advised the energy and other industries for more than three decades as well as the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense. His work in 50+ countries has been recognized by the “Alternative Nobel,” Blue Planet, Volvo, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, Goff Smith, and Mitchell Prizes, the Benjamin Franklin and Happold Medals, 11 honorary doctorates, honorary membership of the American Institute of Architects, Foreign Membership of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, honorary Senior Fellowship of the Design Futures Council, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, Jean Meyer, Time Hero for the Planet, Time International Hero of the Environment, Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Leadership, National Design (Design Mind), and World Technology Awards.

A Harvard and Oxford dropout and former Oxford don, he has briefed 20 heads of state and advises major firms and governments worldwide, recently including the leadership of Coca-Cola, Deutsche Bank, Ford, Holcim, Interface, and Wal-Mart.

In 2009, Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers.

Mr. Lovins cofounded and is Chairman and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org), an independent, market-oriented, entrepreneurial, nonprofit, nonpartisan think-and-do tank that creates abundance by design. Much of its pathfinding work on advanced resource productivity (typically with expanding returns to investment) and innovative business strategies is synthesized in Natural Capitalism (1999, with Paul Hawken and L.H. Lovins, www.natcap.org). This intellectual capital provides most of RMI’s revenue through private-sector consultancy that has served or been invited by more than 80 Fortune 500 firms, lately redesigning more than $30 billion worth of facilities in 29 sectors. In 1992, RMI spun off E SOURCE (www.esource.com), and in 1999, Fiberforge Corporation (www.fiberforge.com), a composites technology firm that Mr. Lovins chaired until 2007; its technology, when matured and scaled, will permit cost effective manufacturing of the ultralight-hybrid Hypercar® vehicles he invented in 1991.

The latest of his numerous books is Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era (2011, Chelsea Green Publishing), in which Lovins maps a robust path for integrating comprehensive energy solutions in four industries-transportation, buildings, electricity, and manufacturing-melding radically efficient energy use with reliable, secure, renewable energy supplies. Others include: Small Is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size (2002, www.smallisprofitable.org), an Economist book of the year blending financial economics with electrical engineering, and the Pentagon-cosponsored Winning the Oil Endgame (2004, www.oilendgame.com), a roadmap for eliminating U.S. oil use by the 2040s, led by business for profit. His most recent visiting academic chair was in spring 2007 as MAP/Ming Professor in Stanford’s School of Engineering, offering the University’s first course on advanced energy efficiency (www.rmi.org/stanford).

Colonel Mark Mykleby

Colonel Mark “Puck” Mykleby was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps following his graduation from the United States Naval Academy in 1987. He was designated a naval aviator and qualified F/A-18 pilot in 1990. Mykleby has served in five fleet fighter squadrons and his operational experience includes five deployments (land based and ship borne) to the European, Pacific, and Southwest Asian theaters. He has participated in combat operations in support of Operations PROVIDE PROMISE, DENY FLIGHT, SOUTHERN WATCH, and IRAQI FREEDOM.

From 2007 to 2009, he developed strategy for US Special Operations Command and from 2009 until 2011 he served as a special strategic assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff developing grand strategy, and where he co-wrote “A National Strategic Narrative,” with Navy Captain Wayne Porter, which offers a contextual narrative to help guide future U.S. policy. Mark retired from the Marine Corps in July 2011 and has joined LRN, a company dedicated to helping organizations build ethical, values-based cultures that inspire principled performance in business and in life.

Colonel Mykleby is a graduate of Marine Weapons and Tactics Instructor School, the Navy Fighter Weapons School (Topgun), and the Allied Air Forces Central Europe’s Tactical Leadership Program (TLP). Mykleby graduated from the United States Naval Academy with distinction in 1987 and the Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School in 1995. He holds both a Masters of National Security Studies from the Air War College and a Masters of Military Studies from the Marine Corps Command and Staff College.

Capt. Wayne Porter

Capt. Wayne Porter’s distinguished career in the U.S. Navy began with his commission in 1986. His tours have included Fleet Ocean Surveillance Intelligence Center, The USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), and the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Capt. Wayne Porter recently joined the Naval Postgraduate School as the new Chair of Systemic Strategy and Complexity under the Global Public Policy Academic Group.

Porter most recently served as the special strategic assistant to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, and co-wrote “A National Strategic Narrative,” with retired Marine Corps Col. Mark Mykleby, which offers a contextual narrative to help guide future U.S. policy. Porter holds dual master’s degrees in Computer Science and Joint Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence. He is currently working on his Ph.D. at NPS, testing systems and complexity theories in his dissertation research.

Clyde Prestowitz

Clyde Prestowitz is founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute. His leadership has propelled ESI into an important role in the public policy process, influencing and often defining the terms of the debate in the areas of international trade policy, economic competitiveness, and the effects of globalization. Mr. Prestowitz has played key roles in achieving congressional passage of NAFTA and in shaping the final content of the Uruguay Round, as well as providing the intellectual basis for current U.S. trade policies toward Japan, China, and Korea.

Prior to founding ESI, Mr. Prestowitz served as counselor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration. There, he led many U.S. trade and investment negotiations with Japan, China, Latin America, and Europe. Before joining the Commerce Department, he was a senior businessman in the United States, Europe, Japan, and throughout Asia and Latin America. He has served as vice chairman of the President’s Committee on Trade and Investment in the Pacific and sits on the Intel Policy Advisory Board and the U.S. Export-Import Bank Advisory Board.

Clyde Prestowitz regularly writes for leading publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fortune, and Foreign Affairs. He is the author of the best-selling book on U.S.-Japan relations, Trading Places, and co-author and editor of several other books on international trade and business strategy including Asia After the Miracle; Powernomics; Bit by Bit; The New North American Trade Order; Rogue Nation; and Three Billion New Capitalists. His latest book, The Betrayal of American Prosperity: Free Market Delusions, America’s Decline, and How We Must Compete in the Post-Dollar Era, addresses how we can restore our economic leadership and excellence.

Mr. Prestowitz has a B.A. with honors from Swarthmore College; an M.A. in East-West Policies and Economics from the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii; and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate School of Business. He also studied at Keio University in Tokyo. He is fluent in Japanese, Dutch, German, and French.

Robert B. Schwartz

Robert Schwartz has since 1996 been a lecturer on education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, where he currently directs the Education and Management Program. From 1997-2002 he also served as founding President of Achieve, Inc., an independent, bipartisan, non-profit organization created by the nation’s governors and corporate leaders to help states raise standards and improve performance in the schools. In its first five years Achieve conducted benchmarking studies of state standards, tests, and related education policies for 16 states; organized an interstate consortium to strengthen middle grades mathematics education; launched the American Diploma Project, an initiative with three other national organizations and five states to close the gap between high school exit requirements in reading, writing and mathematics and the real-world demands of colleges and high-skills workplaces; and hosted two National Education Summits.

Over the past four decades, Mr. Schwartz has worked in a variety of roles in education and government. He has been a high school English teacher and principal; an education advisor to the Mayor of Boston and the Governor of Massachusetts; an assistant director of the National Institute of Education; a special assistant to the President of the University of Massachusetts; and Executive Director of The Boston Compact, a public-private partnership designed to improve access to higher education and employment for urban high school graduates.

From 1990 to 1996, Schwartz directed the education grant making program of The Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the nations’ largest private philanthropies. Among the major reform projects initiated during his tenure at the Trusts were New Standards, a voluntary national system of student performance standards and assessments developed jointly by the University of Pittsburgh, the National Center of Education and the Economy, and 17 partner states; Community Compacts for Student Success, a six city K-16 systemic reform effort to increase the enrollment and success rates of disadvantaged students in higher education; and the National Youth Apprenticeship Initiative, a policy, research and technical assistance initiative developed by Jobs for the Future aimed at promoting better national, state and local policies and programs to prepare young people for work and further learning.

Mr. Schwartz has written and spoken widely on such topics as standards-based reform, public-private partnerships, school-to-work, and the role of higher education in K-12 reform. He currently serves on the boards of The Education Trust, Teachers 21, and the National Academy of Science’s Center for Education, and on advisory committees for The Boston Foundation, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, and the Public Education Network. He has degrees from Harvard College and Brandeis University.

Keynote: Chas W. Freeman, Jr.

Chas Freeman is an American diplomat, author, and writer. He has served for the State and Defense Departments in many different capacities, beginning in 1965, working first in India and Taiwan before being assigned to the State Department’s China desk. There he was assigned as the principal interpreter during United States President Richard Nixon’s 1972 first visit to the People’s Republic of China. He later became the State Department Deputy Director for Republic of China (Taiwan) affairs. After various positions within the State Department he was given overseas assignments as deputy chief of mission in Beijing, China and then Bangkok, Thailand, before being selected as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs in 1986. He became United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in November 1989, serving during Operation Desert Storm, until 1992.

From 1992 to 1993 Ambassador Freeman was a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies. From 1993 to 1994 he was Assistant Secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs. From 1994 to 1995 he was Distinguished Fellow, United States Institute of Peace. In 1995 he became Chairman of the Board of Projects International, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based business development firm arranging international joint ventures. He also is a member of the board of several diplomatic institutes, as well as of several corporate and non-profit advisory boards.

He is a past president of the Middle East Policy Council, co-chair of the U.S. China Policy Foundation, and vice-chair of the Atlantic Council. In his over thirty year diplomatic career, Ambassador Freeman has received two Distinguished Public Service Awards, three Presidential Meritorious Service Awards and a Distinguished Honor Award. He speaks fluent Chinese, French, Spanish and Arabic.

Moderator: T.M.( Mac ) Deford

T.M.( Mac ) Deford started his career as a Foreign Service Officer in Vietnam in 1966. Subsequently, he studied Arabic in Beirut, after which he served in Saudi Arabia and Washington. He resigned from the Foreign Service in 1977, as the political counselor at the embassy in Amman, Jordan, to join Merrill Lynch International. He spent most of his Merrill career in Latin America and Asia, retiring in 1997 as the managing director in Hong Kong for Merrill’s Asian Private Banking business. Upon retirement, he relocated to Maine, getting a master’s degree in Theological Studies from Bangor Theological Seminary in 2001. He was the president of the board of the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland and is active on a number of non-profit boards, including International College in Beirut, the Nieman Fellows at Harvard University, the School of Policy and International Affairs at the University of Maine, and the advisory council of the Camden Conference. He is also the president of the Midcoast Forum on Foreign Relations in Camden. He writes a weekly foreign column for midcoast Maine’s Free Press.

Pranab Bardhan

Pranab Kumar Bardhan is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley (since 1977). Educated in Presidency College, Kolkata and Cambridge University, England, he had been on the faculty of MIT, Delhi School of Economics, and Indian Statistical Institute, before joining Berkeley. He has been Visiting Professor/ Fellow at London School of Economics, Trinity College, Cambridge, St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, and University of Siena, Italy.

He has done theoretical and field studies research on rural institutions in poor countries, on political economy of development policies, and on international trade and globalization. A part of his work is in the interdisciplinary area of economics, political science, and social anthropology. He has been on the editorial board of a number of economics journals, including The American Economic Review (1978–81), the Journal of Economic Perspectives (1989–94), the International Economic Review (Associate Editor, 1971–1985), and the Journal of Development Economics (Chief Editor, 1985 to 2003). He won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981 and the Mohalanobis Gold Medal of the Indian Econometric Society in 1980.

He is the author of 12 books, more than 120 journal articles, and the editor of 12 other books. He has occasionally written columns in The Times, Scientific American, Business Standard, YaleGlobal Online, Anandabazar Patrika (Kolkata). Outside the US, he has given public lectures or keynote addresses at Beijing, Bogota, Calcutta, Cape Town, Canberra, Copenhagen, Delhi, Istanbul, Manchester, Melbourne, Mumbai, Nairobi, Oxford, Shanghai, Turin, and Vancouver.

Bardhan is also on the advisory board of FFIPP-USA (Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace-USA), a network of Palestinian, Israeli, and International faculty, and students, working in for an end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and just peace.

Hannah Beech

Hannah Beech is a journalist for TIME Magazine, serving as its Southeast Asia Bureau Chief.

In 2009, Ms. Beech was awarded for Excellence in Reporting Breaking News, Honourable Mention, in the Society of Publishers in Asia Awards for Editorial Excellence (SOPA Awards), for her reporting on Cyclone Nargis in Burma. She also received a 2007 Honourable Mention for Best Opinion Writing.

Ms. Beech graduated in 1995 from Colby College and was the 1994 recipient of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship for Maryland. She did undergraduate internships at U.S. News & World Report and Asian media outlets. In addition, while in Hong Kong, she studied the Chinese print media’s coverage of Asian governments.

Banning Garrett

Banning Garrett is the Director of the Asia Program at the Atlantic Council, a position he has held since March 2009 and held previously from January 2003 through January 2007.
Previously, he was the Director of the Initiative for U.S.-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate at the Asia Society’s Center for U.S.-China Relations. He is the founding Executive Director of the Institute for Sino-American International Dialogue (ISAID) at the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. Before joining the Council in January 2003, Dr. Garrett was a consultant for 22 years to the Department of Defense and other U.S. Government agencies carrying on a strategic dialogue with China. He was also a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a founding board member of the U.S. Committee for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (USCSCAP).

Dr. Garrett has written extensively on a wide range of issues, including U.S.-China relations and cooperation on climate change, energy, and other strategic issues; U.S. strategy toward China; Chinese foreign policy and views of the strategic environment; globalization and its strategic impact; U.S. defense policy and Asian security; and arms control. Garrett has published in numerous journals, including International Security, The Washington Quarterly, Asian Survey,Arms Control Today, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis,The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, The New York Times, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Global Times, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Chinadialogue, and YaleGlobal, and has contributed to many edited volumes on Asian affairs.

Dr. Garrett received his BA from Stanford University and his PhD from Brandeis University. He has made nearly 50 trips to China since 1981 for consultations with Chinese officials and analysts as well as numerous similar visits to Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.

David F. Gordon

David F. Gordon is Eurasia Group’s head of research and director of global macro analysis. He is a member of the firm’s management committee, and is based in Washington, DC.

Before joining Eurasia Group, David spent more than ten years working at the highest levels of US foreign and national security policy processes. From June 2007 to January 2009, David served as the director of policy planning under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He played a leading role in developing policy ideas for Rice on issues ranging from Afghanistan and Pakistan to US engagement in East Asia to the multilateral response to the international financial crisis. He also led the department’s strategic policy dialogues with more than 20 countries around the globe.

Prior to his work with the US State Department, David served in a top management role at the National Intelligence Council (NIC) from 2004 to 2007, during which time he led the NIC’s integration into the new Office of the Director of National Intelligence and its reemergence as the preeminent analytic center in the US government through enhancing analytic quality and integrity in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq National Intelligence Estimate. He provided analytic leadership for the NIC’s groundbreaking reports, Global Trends 2015 and Global Trends 2020.

Other positions that David has held include the director of CIA’s Office of Transnational Issues, an office that covers issues including global economics and energy, illicit finance, insurgency and counterinsurgency, and global health; and national intelligence officer for economics and global issues at the NIC. For six years, David represented the intelligence community on the senior White House interagency body responsible for coordinating international economic policy.

Earlier in his career, David was a senior fellow and director at the Overseas Development Council, a senior staff member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives, and the regional economic policy and democracy/governance adviser for the US Agency for International Development based in Nairobi, Kenya.

In the 1980s, David pursued an academic career with a joint appointment at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. He has also taught at the College of William and Mary, Princeton University, Georgetown University, and the University of Nairobi. David’s latest book is Managing Strategic Surprise: Lessons from Risk Management and Risk Assessment, co-edited with Ian Bremmer and Paul Bracken (Cambridge University Press, 2007).

David is a graduate of Bowdoin College and undertook graduate studies in both political science and economics at the University of Michigan, where he received his PhD in 1981.

Joanna Lewis

Joanna Lewis is an assistant professor of Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA) at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Her research focuses on renewable energy industry and policy development, mechanisms for low-carbon technology transfer in the developing world, and expanding options for multilateral engagement in a post-2012 international climate change agreement. Most of Professor Lewis’ research is based in China. Current projects include studies of China’s wind power industry development, the security implications of climate change impacts for China, and the future of the bilateral relationship between the United States and China on energy and climate change.

Dr. Lewis serves as an international advisor to the Energy Foundation China Sustainable Energy Program in Beijing. She is a member of the National Academies Committee on US-China Cooperation on Electricity from Renewables, the Advisory Board of the Asia Society’s Center on US-China Relations, and the Strategic Advisory Board of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)’s US-China Program. She has consulted for many domestic and international organizations including UNIDO and USAID.

Previously, Dr. Lewis was a Senior International Fellow at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and a researcher in the China Energy Group at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She also served as the primary technical advisor for the Asia Society’s Initiative for US-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate, and she has also worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the National Wildlife Federation and the Environmental Defense Fund. From 2003-2004 she was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Energy, Environment, and Economy at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Thomas R. Pickering

Thomas (“Tom”) R. Pickering currently serves as Senior Advisor at Hills and Company, an international trade firm based in Washington DC. Ambassador Pickering retired from the State Department as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. In a diplomatic career with service in each of the major continents, Ambassador Pickering reached the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. He served as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador; Nigeria, and Jordan. He also was the U.S. Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York, where he led the U.S. effort to build a coalition in the UN Security Council during and after the first Gulf War. He has held additional positions in Tanzania, Geneva, and Washington, including as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs and as Executive Secretary of the Department and Special Assistant to Secretaries of State William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger.

After retiring from the State Department in 2000, Ambassador Pickering joined The Boeing Company as Senior Vice President International Relations and member of the Executive Council, where he was responsible for the Company’s relations with foreign governments and the globalization of Boeing. He also serves on several not-for-profit boards.

Ambassador Pickering holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College, an M.A.L.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a second M.A. from the University of Melbourne in Australia, where he studied under a Fulbright Scholarship. He speaks French, Spanish, and Swahili fluently and also is proficient in Arabic, Hebrew and Russian.

Charles L. (Jack) Pritchard

Charles L. (Jack) Pritchard is the President of the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) in Washington. Prior to joining KEI, he was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC from September 2003 until February 2006. Ambassador Pritchard served as ambassador and special envoy for negotiations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and United States representative to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization in the administration of President George W. Bush from April 2001 until September 2003. Previously, he served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Asian Affairs in the administration of President William J. Clinton. During the Clinton administration, Ambassador Pritchard was also the Director of Asian Affairs in the National Security Council and deputy chief negotiator for the Four Party Peace Talks, which aimed at reducing the tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Ambassador Pritchard is a former United States Army officer and attaché in Tokyo, Japan. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2000 as a Colonel after serving 28 years on active duty. He received a B.A. in political science from Mercer University, Macon, Georgia; an M.A. in international studies from the University of Hawaii; and a diploma from the Japanese National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo. He is the recipient of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal.