Reinventing U.S. Diplomacy: A Foreign Service for the 21st Century

Wednesday, October 28, 2020
12:00 - 1:00 pm CDT

Reinventing U.S. Diplomacy: A Foreign Service for the 21st Century

Amid growing recognition of the mismatch between the way American citizens view their own interests and the way U.S. leaders define the national interest, the search is on for solutions. Ambassador Marc Grossman discusses what he and fellow former diplomats think should be done to address this challenge through the American Diplomacy Project at Harvard University. Drawing upon his 29-year diplomatic career, which included service as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Grossman shares his perspective on renewing the Foreign Service for a new era—and why citizen input to reform the Foreign Service is so important.

This event is presented by the Yeutter Institute and the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center and is part of the Thomas C. Sorensen Policy Seminar Series, supported by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Arts & Sciences Thomas C. Sorensen Endowment.

Headshot of Marc Grossman

Marc Grossman

Ambassador Marc Grossman

Ambassador Marc Grossman served as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the State Department's third ranking official, until his retirement in 2005 after 29 years in the US Foreign Service. As Under Secretary, he helped marshal diplomatic support for the international response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. He also managed US policies in the Balkans and Colombia and promoted a key expansion of the NATO alliance. As Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, he helped direct NATO's military campaign in Kosovo and an earlier round of NATO expansion. Ambassador Grossman was the US Ambassador to Turkey 1994 – 1997.

Ambassador Grossman was a Vice Chairman of The Cohen Group from July 2005 to February 2011.

In February, 2011 President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton called Ambassador Grossman back to service as the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ambassador Grossman promoted the international effort to support Afghanistan by shaping major international meetings in Istanbul, Bonn, Chicago and Tokyo. He provided US backing for an Afghan peace process designed to end thirty years of conflict and played an important part in restoring US ties with Pakistan. He returned to The Cohen Group in February, 2013.

Ambassador Grossman is Chairman of the Board of the Senior Living Foundation of the Foreign Service. He is a Trustee of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the UC Santa Barbara Foundation, and Robert College of Istanbul. Ambassador Grossman is Vice Chair of the American Academy of Diplomacy. In 2013, Ambassador Grossman was Kissinger Senior Fellow at the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy at Yale University. 

Raised in Los Angeles, California, Ambassador Grossman has a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.