William Joseph Burns


William Joseph Burns is President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former United States Deputy Secretary of State. He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a thirty-three-year diplomatic career. Burns previously served as Ambassador of the United States to Jordan from 1998 to 2001, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs from 2001 to 2005, Ambassador of the United States to the Russian Federation from 2005 until 2008, and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2008 to 2011, among other senior roles in Washington and abroad. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become Deputy Secretary of State.

Early life and education

Burns was born at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He earned a B.A. in history from La Salle University and M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees in international relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar.

Career

U.S. Foreign Service

Ambassador Burns entered the Foreign Service in 1982 and served as Deputy Secretary of State from 2011 until 2014. Previously, he served as Under Secretary for Political Affairs from 2008 until 2011. He was U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2005 until 2008, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2001 until 2005, and U.S. Ambassador to Jordan from 1998 until 2001. Before these, he was also Executive Secretary of the State Department and Special Assistant to Secretaries Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright; Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow; Acting Director and Principal Deputy Director 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.
Burns, together with George Tenet was instrumental in forcing through the short-lived Israeli-Palestinian cease fire agreement of June 2001. He played a leading role in the elimination of Libya's illicit weapons program, efforts to re-set relations with Russia early in the Obama Administration, and strengthening the strategic partnership with India.
In July 2002, Burns, along with Ryan Crocker and David Pearce, sent a memo to Secretary of State Colin Powell outlining the risks of regime change in Iraq. Burns wrote, "an effort to overthrow the regime in
Baghdad could unravel if we're not careful, intersecting to create a 'perfect storm' for American interests."
In 2013, Burns, along with Jake Sullivan, led the secret bilateral channel with Iran that led to a historic interim agreement between Iran and the P5+1, and ultimately the Iran nuclear deal. Burns was reported to be "in the driver's seat" of the American negotiating team for the interim agreement. Burns had met secretly with Iranian officials as far back as 2008, when then-President George W. Bush dispatched him.
A cable Burns signed as ambassador and released by WikiLeaks describing "a high society wedding in the Caucasus -- complete with massive quantities of alcohol, lumps of gold and revolver-wielding drunkards" attended by President Ramzan Kadyrov, received widespread international coverage, with historian Timothy Garton Ash writing that "Burns's analyses of Russian politics are astute," with the "highly entertaining account" of the wedding "almost worthy of Evelyn Waugh."

Retirement from the Foreign Service

On April 11, the State Department announced Burns would step down as Deputy Secretary of State in October 2014, after he twice delayed his retirement first at the request of Secretary John Kerry and then at the request of President Obama.
In a press statement announcing Ambassador Burns' decision to retire, Secretary of State John Kerry said that "Bill is a statesman cut from the same cloth, caliber, and contribution as George F. Kennan and Chip Bohlen, and he has more than earned his place on a very short list of American diplomatic legends". Kerry lauded Burns' "quiet, head-down, get-it-done diplomacy", stating that it had earned him the trust of both Republican and Democratic administrations.
President Obama, in his own statement, said Ambassador Burns "has been a skilled advisor, consummate diplomat, and inspiration to generations of public servants…the country is stronger for Bill's service".
The Atlantic called him the "secret diplomatic weapon" deployed against some of the United States' thorniest foreign policy challenges.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Burns was appointed the ninth President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on February 4, 2015, where he leads a global network of 140 scholars across 20 countries and six centers.
Burns was widely assumed to be on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's shortlist of Secretary of State nominees, had she won.

Publications

His bestselling memoir, , was published by Random House in 2019. It was published in conjunction with an of nearly 100 declassified diplomatic cables. For The Back Channel, Burns received The Douglas Dillon Book Award for Books of Distinction on the Practice of American Diplomacy.
In 2019, he was made a "Contributing Writer" at magazine.
Burns writes regularly on U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy for the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and other publications.
His Oxford dissertation was published in 1985 as .

Awards

Burns is the recipient of three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and a number of Department of State awards, including three Secretary's Distinguished Service Awards, the Secretary's Career Achievement Award, the Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Ambassadorial Award for Initiative and Success in Trade Development, the Robert C. Frasure Memorial Award, and the James Clement Dunn Award. He also received the Department of Defense Award for Distinguished Public Service, the U.S. Intelligence Community Medallion, and the Central Intelligence Agency's Agency Seal Medal.
In 1994, Burns was named to TIME Magazine's lists of "50 Most Promising American Leaders Under Age 40" and "100 Most Promising Global Leaders Under Age 40". He was named Foreign Policy's "Diplomat of the Year" in 2013. He is the recipient of Anti-Defamation League's Distinguished Statesman Award, the Middle East Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Academy of Diplomacy's Annenberg Award for Diplomatic Excellence.
Burns holds four honorary doctoral degrees and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also an honorary Fellow, St. John's College, Oxford.

Foreign Government Decorations

Burns and his wife Lisa Carty have two daughters.