Richard N. Haass - Biography

Richard Nathan Haass (born July 28, 1951) is an American diplomat. He has been president of the Council on Foreign Relations since July 2003, 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. The Senate approved Haass as a candidate for the position of ambassador and he has been U.S. Coordinator for the Future of Afghanistan. He succeeded George J. Mitchell as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland to help the peace process in Northern Ireland, for which he received the State Department's Distinguished Service Award. At the end of 2003, Mitchell Reiss succeeded him as special envoy.

Life and career

Haass was born in Brooklyn to a family of Jewish origin. From 1989 to 1993, Haass was Special Assistant to United States President George H. W. Bush and National Security Council Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs. In 1991, Haass received the Presidential Citizens Medal for helping to develop and explain U.S. policy during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Previously, he served in various posts in the Department of State (1981–85) and the Department of Defense (1979–80) and was a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate.

Haass's other postings include 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 Kennedy School of Government, and a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. A Rhodes Scholar, Haass obtained a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1973 and went on to earn both a Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford University.

Throughout the 2008 Presidential campaign, Haass advised several members of both the Republican Party and Democratic Party on issues regarding foreign policy, but did not publicly endorse a candidate due to the Council on Foreign Relations' non-partisan stance.

Haass is the author of 12 books, of which 11 deal with matters of foreign policy and one with management. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Haass has stated that "In the age of globalization, states should give up some sovereignty to world bodies in order to protect their own interests." Haass is also known for hawkish positions on foreign relations including sending US troops into Libya, and taking more assertive roles with Iran and North Korea. On the other hand, he supports a drastic US forces drawdown in Afghanistan since beginning of the Presidency of Barack Obama.

Bibliography

• Beyond the INF Treaty (1988, ISBN 0-8191-6942-0)
• The Power to Persuade: How to Be Effective in Any Unruly Organization (1995, ISBN 0-395-73525-4)
  • updated in 1999 as The Bureaucratic Entrepreneur: How to Be Effective in Any Unruly Organization (1999, ISBN 0-8157-3353-4)
• Economic Sanctions and American Diplomacy (1998, ISBN 0-87609-212-1)
• The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War (1997, ISBN 0-87609-198-2)
• After the Tests: U.S. Policy Toward India and Pakistan (1999, ISBN 0-87609-236-9)
• Transatlantic Tensions: The United States, Europe, and Problem Countries (editor, 1999, ISBN 0-8157-3351-8)
• Intervention: The Use of American Military Force in the Post-Cold War World (1999, ISBN 0-87003-135-X)
• Honey and Vinegar: Incentives, Sanctions, and Foreign Policy (2000, ISBN 0-8157-3355-0)
• The Opportunity: America's Moment to Alter History's Course (2006, ISBN 1-58648-453-2)
• War of Necessity, War of Choice (2009, ISBN 978-1416549024)

External links

• Richard Haass — History Commons
• State sovereignty must be altered in globalized era; An Article written by Richard Haass on the age of globalization.
• Council of Foreign Relations President Profile