To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
Ziad Haider, Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, will discuss the importance of commercial diplomacy as a strategic tool in foreign policy.
Ziad Haider serves as the Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He leads the Office of Commercial and Business Affairs in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs in assisting and promoting U.S. business interests overseas; ensuring that private sector concerns are fully integrated into U.S. foreign and economic policy; and promoting global entrepreneurship and the protection of intellectual property rights.
He previously served as a Senior Advisor for international economic affairs on the Policy Planning Staff in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of State; a White House Fellow in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice; and a Foreign Policy Legislative Aide in the U.S. Senate.
Mr. Haider was an attorney at White & Case LLP where he represented clients in investor-state disputes before the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes and counseled clients on regulatory and national security matters, including U.S. sanctions and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review process.
Fluent in Urdu and proficient in Mandarin and French, he received his JD and MPA from Georgetown and Harvard and BA from Yale and was a Fulbright Scholar in Southeast Asia.