Doctor of Humane Letters

Ambassador William Burns is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a global network of policy research centers. From 1982 to 2014, he served as U.S. deputy secretary of state, earning the rank of career ambassador, the highest rank in the Foreign Service. Burns is only the second career diplomat in history to become deputy secretary of state, and he has earned the respect of leaders within both political parties. Upon his retirement from the State Department in 2014, President Barack Obama called him an “inspiration to generations of public servants.” Current Secretary of State John Kerry has said that “Bill is the gold standard for quiet, head-down, get-it-done diplomacy.” Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state during President George W. Bush’s administration, once described Burns as “a man of principle who will not bow to expediency.” Jim Baker, President George H.W. Bush’s secretary of state, noted that “everybody has confidence in him.”

Burns’ reputation extends beyond Washington. The Atlantic called him a “secret diplomatic weapon” who has broached some of the country’s most delicate foreign policy issues. Over the course of his career, he enabled progress during the Middle East peace process, helped to end Libya’s weapons program, and worked with Iranian leaders to produce the historic interim agreement between Iran and the six powerful nations known as the P5+1. In 1988, Colin Powell, then national security adviser, put Burns, then just 32 years old, in charge of America’s Middle East office. Later, Burns became ambassador to both Russia and Jordan and also served as special assistant to Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher.

Burns is the author of Economic Aid and American Policy Toward Egypt, 1955–1981. Among his many honors are three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards, the highest civilian honors from the Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community.

Burns speaks Russian, Arabic and French. He majored in history at La Salle University before earning master’s and doctoral degrees in international relations at Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. In 2015, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.