Former U.S. Ambassador to Speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for Waldo Family Lecture Series
Nicholas Burns
For the upcoming Waldo Family Lecture Series on International Relations, Old Dominion University will host Nicholas Burns, a Harvard professor and Boston Globe columnist who once served as the lead U.S. negotiator on Iran's nuclear program.
Burns will deliver the lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, in the Ted Constant Convocation Center. It is free and open to the public; parking is available in the 43rd Street garage. For more information or to RSVP for the lecture, visit www.odu.edu/ao/univevents (event code: WFL13).
Burns is Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He also is director of the Future of Diplomacy Project and faculty chair for the Programs on the Middle East and on India and South Asia. He serves on the board of directors of the school's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Also director of the Aspen Strategy Group, Burns writes a biweekly column on foreign affairs for the Boston Globe and is a senior foreign policy columnist for GlobalPost. He serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. He is a member of the Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Burns served in the U.S. government for 27 years. As a career foreign service officer, he was under secretary of state for political affairs from 2005-08; the State Department's third-ranking official when he led negotiations on the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement; and the lead U.S. negotiator on Iran's nuclear program. He was U.S. ambassador to NATO (2001-05), ambassador to Greece (1997-2001) and State Department spokesman (1995-97). He worked for five years (1990-95) on the National Security Council at the White House. Among his many awards and honors, Burns is the recipient of the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award.