Join Ambassador William Burns at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a conversation on “American Diplomacy in a Disordered World.”

Ambassador Burns is the President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States. Ambassador Burns has previously served as United States Deputy Secretary of State, the U.S. Ambassador to Russia and Jordan, and the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Born at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Burns earned a B.A. in history from La Salle University, and M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees in international relations from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. His most recent book, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal, was published in 2019. He has previously published Economic Aid and American Policy Toward Egypt, 1955–1981.

Burns has been awarded three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards, four honorary doctoral degrees, and has been honored as Foreign Policy's “Diplomat of the Year.”

His numerous other posts in the Foreign Service include: executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to former secretaries of state Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright; minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. embassy in Moscow; acting director and principal deputy director of the State Department’s policy planning staff; and special assistant to the president and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council.

Save the date: Thursday, March 19th from 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM in the Gillings Auditorium (133 Rosenau Hall), in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, 135 Dauer Drive, Chapel Hill, NC.

Moderator: UNC Professor Dr. Ted Leinbaugh OBE PHD.

Welcome reception catered by Carolina Dining, 5:00 PM - 5:30 PM

"The Back Channel” will be available for purchase and signing at this event.

Parking options: the Carolina Inn, Beard Lot, and the GEC Parking Deck.

This event generously sponsored by:
The Transatlantic Forum for Education and Diplomacy (TFED),
The Peace, War, and Defense Curriculum (PWAD),
UNC Center for European Studies (CES),
& The Gillings Global Series.

Beard Parking Lot: https://maps.unc.edu/parking/beard-lot/
GEC/ McCauley Parking Deck: https://maps.unc.edu/parking/mccauley-deck/
Venue (Joan Heckler Gillings Auditorium): https://sph.unc.edu/133-rosenau/