The Foreign Service Journal, May 2019

IMPERATIVE Diplomacy 18 MAY 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL THE COVER STORY Ambassador William J. Burns retired in 2014 after a 33-year diplomatic career with the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service. He became Deputy Secretary of State in July 2011, only the second serving career diplomat in history to do so. From 2008 to 2011, he served as under secretary of State for political affairs. He was ambassador to Russia from 2005 until 2008, assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs from 2001 until 2005 and ambassador to Jordan from 1998 until 2001. He has served in a number of other posts since entering the Foreign Service in 1982: executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to Secretar- ies Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright; minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. embassy in Moscow; acting director and principal deputy direc- tor of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff; and special assistant to the president and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council. Ambassador Burns speaks Russian, Arabic and French, and is the recipient of numerous presidential, Department of State and other awards. He earned a bach- elor’s degree in history from La Salle University and master’s and doctoral degrees in international relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. He and his wife, Lisa, have two daughters. Ambassador Burns is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think-tank in the United States. He was last interviewed by The Foreign Service Journal in 2014, on the eve of his retirement. In February we caught up with Amb. Burns ahead of the publication of his new book, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal. —Shawn Dorman, Editor AQ&Awith WilliamJ. Burns DAVIDEBONAZZI