The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, the International Security Policy Concentration (ISP) at the School of International and Public Affairs, and the Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Campus Coordinator, Bren Flanigan, present
The Future of American Diplomatic Leadership:
A Conversation with Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III
Moderated by Lisa Anderson, Special Lecturer in International and Public Affairs, Dean Emerita, SIPA, former President, American University of Cairo
Bios:
Ambassador L. Paul Bremer’s diplomatic service spanned eight Presidents. He was Special Assistant to six Secretaries of State and Henry Kissinger’s Chief of Staff. His overseas assignments included Afghanistan, Malawi, and Norway. President Reagan appointed him Ambassador to the Netherlands (1983-86) and then Ambassador at Large for Counter Terrorism (1986-89). In the 1990s, Bremer was Managing Director of Kissinger Associates, a strategic consulting firm and subsequently Chairman and CEO of Marsh Crisis Consulting Company. He served on a number of public company boards including Air Products and Chemicals, Komatsu Industry, Akzo-Nobel and Alelo. In 1999 Bremer was appointed Chairman of the Bipartisan National Commission on Terrorism. In June 2000, the Commission reported that the United States faced a growing threat from Islamic terrorism. After 9/11, President Bush appointed him to the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Commission. In 2003 the President recalled Bremer to government service as Presidential Envoy to Iraq charged with beginning the country’s political and economic reconstruction. Bremer wrote a best-selling book, My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope (2006). Bremer has been awarded numerous awards for his public service including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Since leaving government service, Bremer has continued to be active in a number of not-for-profit organizations. He served as CEO of World Team Sports which organizes sport events for the disabled, and on the Board of Catholic Charities. He is a Trustee of the C and O Canal Trust and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Bremer received his B.A. from Yale University, a C.E.P from the Institut D’Etudes Politiques of the University of Paris, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He has an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from Ave Maria University. Bremer is currently a professional ski instructor and an avid cyclist. In 2010 he led a 4,000-mile cross country ride for wounded warriors. He tells this dramatic story in his book From Sea to Shining Sea. His oil paintings have been exhibited in many cities. His languages are French, Norwegian and Dutch. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Lisa Anderson is a specialist on politics in the Middle East and North Africa. She is James T. Shotwell Professor Emerita of International Relations, Dean Emerita of the School of International and Public Affairs, and Special Lecturer in International and Public Affairs. She previously served as chair of the University’s political science department and director of the Middle East Institute. Before joining Columbia, Anderson was assistant professor of government and social studies at Harvard University. Anderson served as President of the American University of Cairo (2011-16) and as Provost (2008-10). A past president of the Middle East Studies Association and past chair of the board of the Social Science Research Council, Anderson is a former member of the Council of the American Political Science Association, and served on the board of the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs. She is member emerita of the board of Human Rights Watch, where she served as co-chair of Human Rights Watch/Middle East, co-chair of the International Advisory Board of the Von Humbolt Foundation, and member of the International Advisory Council of the World Congress for Middle East Studies. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Anderson is the author of Pursuing Truth, Exercising Power: Social Science and Public Policy in the Twenty-first Century (Columbia University Press, 2003), The State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya, 1820-1980 (Princeton University Press, 1986), editor of Transitions to Democracy (Columbia University Press, 1999) and coeditor of The Origins of Arab Nationalism (Columbia 1991). Anderson holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, an M.A. in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. She was awarded an honorary doctor of laws from Monmouth University in 2002.
