Ambassador Robert Blackwill
Senior Counselor for International Business
Ambassador Blackwill joined DCI as Senior Counselor for International Business in November 2008. Prior to serving as President of Barbour Griffith and Rogers International 2004-2008, a Washington consulting and government affairs firm, Ambassador Blackwill was Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Planning under President George W. Bush. In this position, he was responsible for government-wide policy planning to help develop and coordinate the mid- and long-term direction of American foreign policy. He also served as Presidential Envoy to Iraq and was the Administration’s Coordinator for US policies regarding Afghanistan and Iran.
Ambassador Blackwill went to the National Security Council after serving as the US Ambassador to India, 2001-2003, and is the recipient of the 2007 Bridge-Builder Award for his role in transforming US-India relations. Each year the US-India Business Council confers “The Robert Dean Blackwill Award” to an individual who has made a major contribution to business interactions between the United States and India.
Before reentering government in 2001, Blackwill was the Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. During his 14 years as a Harvard faculty member, he was Associate Dean of the Kennedy School, taught foreign and defense policy and public policy analysis, and was Faculty Chair for executive training programs for business and government leaders from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Palestinian Authority, Israel and Kazakhstan, as well as military General Officers from Russia and the People’s Republic of China.
From 1989 to 1990, Ambassador Blackwill was Special Assistant to President George H.W. Bush for European and Soviet Affairs, during which time he was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to German Unification. Earlier in his career, he was the US Ambassador to conventional arms negotiations with the Warsaw Pact, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political- Military Affairs and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs. The author and editor of many books and articles on Transatlantic relations, Russia and the West, the Greater Middle East and Asian security, he is a Trustee and on the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies; a member of The Aspen Strategy Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Guiding Coalition of the Project on National Security Reform; and on the boards of the Nixon Center and Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.