As Under Secretary, Ambassador Burns oversees U.S. policy in every region of the world and serves in the most senior career Foreign Service position at the Department. In particular, he has played a leading role in U.S. policy towards India and Iran.
Prior to his current assignment, Ambassador Burns was the United States Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. As Ambassador to NATO, he headed the combined State-Defense Department U.S. Mission to NATO at a time when the Alliance committed to new missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war against terrorism, and accepted seven new members.
From 1997 to 2001, Ambassador Burns was U.S. Ambassador to Greece. During his tenure as Ambassador, the U.S. expanded its military and law enforcement cooperation with Greece, strengthened partnerships in the Balkans, and increased investment and trade.
From 1995 to 1997, Ambassador Burns was Spokesman of the Department of State, and Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs under Secretary Warren Christopher and Secretary Madeleine Albright. In this position, he gave daily press conferences on U.S. foreign policy issues, accompanied both Secretaries of State on all their foreign trips and coordinated all of the Department’s public outreach programs.
Ambassador Burns, a career Senior Foreign Service Officer, served from 1990 to 1995 on the National Security Council staff at the White House. He was Special Assistant to President Clinton and served as Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia Affairs. At the White House, Ambassador Burns advised the President on all aspects of U.S. relations with the fifteen countries of the former Soviet Union. Under President George H.W. Bush, he was Director for Soviet and then Russian Affairs. He began his Foreign Service career in Africa and the Middle East as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania. Ambassador Burns also served as the Vice Consul and Staff Assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and then the Political Officer to the American Consulate General in Jerusalem. In this position, he coordinated U.S. economic assistance to the Palestinian population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Ambassador Burns has been awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for outstanding performance three times, the Department’s James Clement Dunn Award for Excellence, and the Charles E. Cobb Award for Trade Development by an Ambassador. He has been decorated by the governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania for his work in securing the withdrawal of Russian military forces from the Baltic region in the 1990s and for helping to secure their admittance to NATO. Ambassador Burns is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has received honorary doctorates from eight American universities. In 2001, he was given the Public Service Award by the Boston College Alumni Association. In 2002, he was presented the Woodrow Wilson Award for Distinguished Government Service by Johns Hopkins University and was named Communicator of the Year by the National Association of Government Communicators in 1997.
Ambassador Burns earned the Certificat Pratique de Langue Francaise from the University of Paris (Sorbonne) in 1977. He subsequently earned a B.A. in European History from Boston College and graduated Summa Cum Laude. He then received a Masters degree in International Economics and American Foreign Policy with distinction from John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
