Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky is a foreign policy expert and former diplomat in national security affairs. She is a Senior Fellow in the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard University’s JFK Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. From 2010-2012, she was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Thomson Reuters and was appointed the Distinguished National Security Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Ambassador Dobriansky served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs from 2001 to 2009; and in February 2007, as the President’s Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, she received the Secretary of State’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, for her contribution to the historic devolution of power in Belfast. During her more than 25 years in national security affairs, Ambassador Dobriansky has held many Senate-confirmed and senior level positions in the U.S. Government including Director of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council, the White House, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Deputy Head of the U.S. Delegation to the 1990 Copenhagen Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and Associate Director for Policy and Programs at the United States Information Agency.
From 1997- 2001, Ambassador Dobriansky was Senior Vice President and Director of the Washington Office of the Council on Foreign Relations and was the first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies. During this time, she also served on the Presidentially-appointed U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy, Ambassador Dobriansky is a Trustee of the Trilateral Commission and the Advisory Board of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She received a B.S.F.S. summa cum laude in International Politics from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Soviet political/military affairs from Harvard University and is the recipient of various international awards and five Honorary Doctorates.