Ambassador William Burns is the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and at this fireside chat he will discuss his new book, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for its Renewal, published on March 2019. The discussion will be moderated by Avril Haines, deputy director of Columbia World Projects and former Deputy Director of the CIA, Dean Merit Janow.
Ambassador Burns is currently president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States. Ambassador Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a thirty-three-year diplomatic career where he served five U.S. presidents and ten secretaries of state. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become deputy secretary of state.
Prior to his tenure as deputy secretary, Ambassador Burns served from 2008 to 2011 as undersecretary for political affairs. He was ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs from 2001 to 2005, and ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001, among many other significant posts.
