Newswise — Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, will deliver the Commencement address at Hamilton College on Sunday, May 20, at 10:30 a.m. in the Margaret Bundy Scott Field House.
Haass is already familiar with Hamilton, having taught as the Sol M. Linowitz Visiting Professor of International Studies in the fall of 1995.
Haass was appointed president of the Council on Foreign Relations in July 2003. The Council, based in New York with an office in Washington, D.C., is an independent, national membership organization and a nonpartisan center for scholars dedicated to discussing pressing foreign policy issues in an effort to promote understanding of foreign policy and America's role in the world since 1921.
Until June 2003, Haass was director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State, where he was a principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell on a broad range of foreign policy concerns. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate to hold the rank of ambassador, Haass served as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and was the lead U.S. government official in support of the Northern Ireland peace process. For his efforts, he received the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award.
From 1989-93, Haass was special assistant to President George Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. In 1991, he was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal for his contributions to the development and articulation of U.S. policy during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Previously, he served in various posts in the departments of State (1981-85) and Defense (1979-80) and was a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate.
Haass is the author or editor of 10 books on American foreign policy. His most recent book, The Opportunity (June 2005), was published by PublicAffairs Books. He is also the author of one book on management, The Bureaucratic Entrepreneur: How to Be Effective in Any Unruly Organization.
Among his other positions, Haass has been vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. A Rhodes Scholar, Haass holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and both a master's degree and doctor of philosophy degree from Oxford University.
Approximately 460 Hamilton students will receive bachelor's degrees during the commencement ceremony that marks the end of the college's 195th academic year. Previous Hamilton Commencement speakers have included columnist Anna Quindlen (2006); former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke (2005); Delaware Congressman Mike Castle, a 1961 Hamilton graduate (2004); PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer (2003); and former EPA Administrator and New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman (2002).
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