Robert Blackwill

Robert D. Blackwill is Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. As deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for strategic planning under President George W. Bush, he was responsible for government-wide policy planning to help develop and coordinate the mid- and long-term direction of American foreign policy. He served as presidential envoy to Iraq and was coordinator for U.S. policies regarding Afghanistan and Iran. He went to the National Security Council after serving as the U.S. ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003, and is the recipient of the 2007 Bridge-Builder Award for his role in transforming U.S.-India relations. He was previously the Belfer lecturer in international security at the Harvard Kennedy School. From 1989 to 1990, 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. The author and editor of many articles and books on U.S. foreign policy and security, he is on the council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Aspen Strategy Group, and on the board of Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.